Good friends are the ultimate external hard drives: they enhance your memory. I remember a lot, but there’s also way too much that’s slipped through the cracks over the years. Yet when I’m with the friends who really shared my life at various points, everything comes rushing back like no time passed at all. For 6th grade through high school reminiscing, there’s no one like Temperance. Our friendship started rocky,…
The Debs are proud to welcome author Diana Orgain as our guest this week. Diana holds an MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University, with a minor in acting. Diana’s plays have been produced at San Francisco State University, GreenHouses Productions, and PlayGround in San Francisco. Bundle of Trouble is her first mystery novel. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and their children. First off, thank…
We’re very happy to welcome Nicki Richesin to the ball today. She is the editor of four anthologies, Because I Love Her: 34 Women Writers Reflect on the Mother-Daughter Bond; Daddy’s Girl: 30 Male Writers on the Father-Daughter Relationship (May 2010); the forthcoming Crush: 30 Real-life Tales of First Love Gone Wrong by our Best Young Adult Novelists; and The May Queen: Women on Life, Work, and Pulling it all…
1. Dreaming of all the hobbies I’d take up if I had more time. 2. Amateur Sleuthing. For instance, the grayish pulp mashed on the floor is: a) dessicated blueberries b) playdough mixed with an unidentifiable substance c) probably biological in nature d) all of the above 3. Planning sensible, healthy, economic meals that eventually will be consumed after a ritualistic series of orange-level threats, negotiations, and bartering. 4. Tracking…
I love to reread books, especially when I’m sick. My favorites are like old friends, and when I read the familiar words I feel comforted and comfortable. My copies of Pride and Prejudice, The Secret Garden, and The Secret of Chimneys (Agatha Christie) all look worn out and well-loved. One of the best things for me about becoming a parent is getting to reread my favorite children’s books again. My…
Is there a transformation more personal and dramatic than becoming a parent? My sister once said to me, “You’re a different person now” after children and my reaction was something like, “Of course.” How can you not be changed when you have two helpless creatures looking to you for not only food, water, shelter, clothing but to shape them into the adults they will become? You will teach them to…
We are happy to welcome Kim Stagliano, an up-and-coming author who has been in the submission phase of this business for a short while. I met Kim a few years back in an online writing group and quickly fell for her wit and charm. We’ve since even met in person and I can tell you she’s cute, smart and sassy, on top of it all! The thing about Kim that…
I should probably skip past the part where I went out for milk on Saturday night (eve of Mother’s Day) and bought not only the milk, but a novel I had no official reason to read and a pint of Hagen Daz. I certainly shouldn’t admit I sat in the grocery store “bistro” for over an hour, ate the entire pint and read most of the book. Sadly, it wasn’t…
The idea of Mother’s Day is great in theory, though I’ve discovered in reality it’s not one that is so readily implemented. it seems that the boundaries of a give-mom-a-day-of-rest holiday for mothers aren’t exactly highly regarded in the fast-paced play-all-day-and-all-night world of kids athletics. Most Mother’s Days for me have meant traveling to yet another city for yet another soccer game—not exactly the type of R&R day I’d schedule…
I read Vicki Glembocki’s THE SECOND NINE MONTHS in proposal form and LOVED its edge and honesty and attitude and humor and I wished there’d been a book like that when I had my first baby. And now I plan to buy it for all the new mothers I know, including my new neighbor who recently gave birth to twins and hasn’t left the house all winter and I hear…
