I spend a lot of time evaluating the relative value/usefulness of things. I want just the right tool at the proper time–but it shouldn’t be extravagant or wasteful. Comparison and criticism are nasty bedfellows. In the past I have silently judged infrequent cooks for buying $300 dutch ovens, when I know my …Read More

  I have one Instagram account and I’ve been thinking about making another one just for photographs of the 12 acres on which we live. There is so much richness in even just a single acre—in even a few square feet—that it would be cheating, because even if I tried, I would never be able to take …Read More

    Every book I write has its own special backstory: the way it came about, the books I read or films I watched while writing it, what was going on in my marriage, my diet, or inside my head. I can make all the plans I like (though I never write to a strict …Read More

I’m not a very crafty person. At least not in the scrapbooking, sewing, beading, needlework sense, anyway. Of course, when you have kids, your lack of craft skills becomes glaringly obvious when their friends show up in precious handmade Halloween costumes and your child is wrapped in a bed sheet decorated with twine and a dried-out Sharpie. Then you …Read More

  I have friends who worry about Halloween, and I take their concerns seriously. If one has a strong sense that there is evil in the world, one usually wants to stay as far away from it–and to keep one’s children as far away from it–as one can. But the Halloween I see when I look …Read More

Years ago, I knew a pianist. She was a wonderful pianist who gave brief, beautiful concerts. She wasn’t a large woman, though she seemed to become one with her powerful concert piano as she played. Together they were like one magnificent, magical instrument. I met her sometimes socially, and being a rather lame but hopeful pianist myself, …Read More

  What? Aren’t you already a professional? you might say, if we were sitting down for a cup of tea together. Haven’t you been publishing for more than two decades? When I think about how long I’ve been writing and publishing, I feel slightly embarrassed about how little I’ve actually published. I’ve written six novels (but published only …Read More

  It’s no secret that I have organizational issues. ADD/ADHD is a real thing and I struggle with it every day. My memory is pretty terrible, and I can’t prioritize my way out of a wet paper bag. It’s also an amazing gift. But some gifts are hard to live with. “Why don’t you just …Read More

One recent Monday–Garbage Night to be exact–my husband, Pinckney, heard mewing near our front gate. We were immediately concerned because our daughter mentioned she’d seen a dead cat out on the road earlier in the day. The mewing gave us visions of some pitiful, half-alive creature abandoned and dying on the asphalt. Usually we only find beer …Read More

      The thing about writing stories and publishing is that they’re both very much like that old Lay’s potato chip slogan: You can’t eat just one. (No, please don’t eat books–no matter how much you love them.) So many people I’ve met who say they want to write, or want to be a writer, claim …Read More