About this time last year I ordered a very funny calendar from the 101 Reasons to Stop Writing folks. (Visit their site to read their latest lighthearted NaNoWriMo coverage. Think of them as the witty atheists in the bar at a Sunday School teacher convention.) I also got a pack of their “HORROR: The escalating …Read More

Welcome to the party! Have you checked out the site? I feel like I’ve been keeping my surprise party a secret from all of you for forever. My site’s been up for about a week now and a couple folks have mentioned it–quietly. But I wanted to have a special event to launch it because …Read More

I confess that–for much of my adult life–I was a book snob. There were certain categories of books that I had stopped reading because I had decided that they weren’t, well, serious. Romance novels were in that category. I’d read tons of Phyllis Whitney as a teenager (Spindrift is just the best title, ever.) and …Read More

So, which Brady were you? I always identified with Jan, who wore glasses and had all those middle-kid issues that her male counterpart Peter never seemed to have. I despised Cindy and envied Marsha to the point of dislike. It was probably self-hatred on my part because I was actually most like Marsha–self-absorbed and blond–only …Read More

I don’t know about you, but I find it tough to get going after a nice long vacation. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at a Secret Undisclosed Location with just the four of us, far from family and friends. (That’s me on the roof of the SUL on Thanksgiving afternoon.) We’re home now and suffering …Read More

Okay. This is just really an excuse to introduce you to the brilliant Tom Lehrer. But he really is a crazy-fine rhymer. If you live in a rural area, you know that Thanksgiving means deer season… And a little something to get you in the mood for “Black Friday,” the beginning of the holiday shopping …Read More

Novels just don’t get any more Gothic than Jane Eyre. This was another fifth grade book fair purchase, and it made an indelible impression on me. Have you read it? Yes, it’s full of melodrama, but it’s narrated in the first person in an unsentimental yet powerfully affecting voice. Jane, an unhappy, unattractive orphan suffers …Read More

Caroline Leavitt is one busy writer. Her ninth(!) novel, Breathe, is set to be published by Algonquin Books in 2010 (read her very revealing interview about it here). In the meantime, she reviews for People and Dame Magazines, writes a regular column for the Boston Globe, does freelance manuscript consulting, teaches novel writing at UCLA …Read More

Lovely news this week… The paperback of Isabella Moon will be featured in Target’s Breakout Books promotion beginning in February. I couldn’t be happier because, yes, Target is my happy place! And here’s the Booklist Review of Calling Mr. Lonely Hearts: Calling Mr. Lonely Hearts. Benedict, Laura (Author) Jan 2009. 352 p. Ballantine, hardcover, $25.00. …Read More

Perry Mason was my first television detective. (He was technically a lawyer, of course, but he always solved his own cases.) On the nights when my father was out of town, my mother would let us watch Perry Mason reruns as we ate our Noodles and Ground Beef Casserole. For years afterward, I associated Perry …Read More