Maybe because I have the most non-descript kind of hair (dishwater and now shot with gray, straight-ish) the subject of my own hair completely bores me. Totally. There’s just not much to say. It’s on my head for the moment, it more or less looks okay and does what I tell it to, and I try to have the good sense to work with what the maker gave me. Put…

Look, normal people don’t become writers. Our agents know this. Our editors really know it. We may look normal (although, on any given day, this is debatable for me), we may be able occassionally to function normally at social events, but, down in our marrow, we are social deviants on some level, our ids more or less toddlers left to swing off the chandeliers at a grown-up party. Writers have…

A friend pointed out when we met recently that there’s something about Russian women and their kitchens. They’re happiest in them. I was like, “Wait, I’m like that!” Okay, I’m half Ukrainian, not Russian, but when it comes down to it, there’s nowhere else on earth I’d rather be than home on a Saturday, cooking up something for a bunch of friends for dinner. I have a great kitchen, even…

When I was growing up and tried to complain that things weren’t going my way, my dad would always tell me to make lemonade out of life’s lemons, which is totally infuriating advice when you’re in the middle of a meltdown/tantrum, but actually incredibly useful. First, I was really lucky as a writer. I wrote a novel and an agent agreed to try to find a home for it! Then…

So I live in a small town near a big city, right? The same town I grew up in. If you want to see half the people you ever knew, all you have to do is stroll on down to the library at about 2:30 in the afternoon and walk around the new release and magazine section. On a recent visit I saw a couple of girlfriends, one of my…

There’s so much focus for aspiring writers on GETTING AN AGENT! I put that in all capitals because, while it’s the necessary first step, I think it’s become a somewhat crazed and desparate process. So maybe my experience (for what it’s worth) will sound counterintuitive, but at least it will allow you take back some of the power and hopefully make a centered, rational decision. Getting an agent should be…

Sorry, guys. My post won’t have pictures (just those you create in your mind). For one thing, I’m going to describe some of my past offices, and, for another, my office is a really private space to me and currently very messy. When I was single, I had a desk in the bedroom of my apartment in New York, and, lo, it was good. A beautiful room in a pre-war…

At first, I was a little skeeved out by Meredith’s premise for Posed for Murder. A photographer who recreates famous murders for art prints? Ummm, not sure. But then I started reading and I loved Lydia right away. I mean, first of all, there’s all those amazing vintage clothes, but that’s a whole, other post. Mostly, I liked Lydia for her artwork. Lydia, it turns out, is almost as skeeved…

I had a hard time with the topic this week. I’m happily married now, but I’ve had my share of bad times in the love game, and who wants to go there again? Yes, I’ve been dumped flat on my proverbial. Yes, yes, yes, I have spent evenings with Patsy Cline and a bottle of Shiraz. Yes, my husband can still push my buttons. But then I started thinking about…