A while ago, I was running with a new friend. Running is a great way to get to know people, all those miles to fill with talk. In the course of our getting-to-know you conversation, she said, “My mom is an artist.” “Really?” I said. “Mine too!” Not only did we have something to bond about, but she would understand my particular neuroses. “So,” I asked, “are you in therapy…
In celebration of Mother’s Day, the theme this week is Moms—more specifically our theme is My mom is going to read this! We wanted to talk about all the things in our novels we are nervous for our moms to read. I racked my brain trying to think of something in my book that would make my mom* uncomfortable—believe me, the characters in THE CITY BAKER’S GUIDE TO COUNTRY LIVING…
WOW. Yesterday I passed a milestone. Which, while jarring in its own way, is likely way less painful than passing a kidney stone. Fortunately, I’m not in a position to verify that from personal experience. You see, yesterday was my daughter’s birthday, and as of this year I have officially been a mother for more of my life than I was not a mother. This is a cool thing. I…
We’re very pleased to welcome Wade Rouse to the ball today. He’s the author of three critically acclaimed (and very funny) memoirs America’s Boy, Confessions of a Prep School Mommy Handler, and his latest, At Least in the City Somone Would Hear Me Scream: Misadventures in Search of the Simple Life. USA Today calls him “wise, witty and wicked,” and The Washington Post says he’s “an original writer and impressive…
I grew up in what I like to think of as the most functional dysfunctional family in the world. After taking a few years to sort things out, my father, stepmother, and mother all learned to co-exist peacefully. My mother, like all ex-wives on my father’s side, was welcome at family events. When I was a senior in high school, she even lived with us for a while. Now, I…
Here’s a gift we mothers should all give yourselves this Mother’s Day week: guilt-free parenting! If only it were that easy. On one hand we have experts, television pundits, the Supernanny, and advice magazines burdening us with restrictions and caveats far beyond what our parents could have imagined. Then, just when we think we’ve covered all our bases with PABA-free sunscreen, anti-porn computer software and cutting our grapes in half…
We’re excited to welcome Jane Cleland, author of the IMBA best selling and multi-award nominated Josie Prescott Antiques Mystery series, which has been called an Antiques Roadshow for mystery fans. Jane chairs the Wolfe Pack’s literary awards and is on the board of the Mystery Writers of America/NY Chapter. Her latest book is called Killer Keepsakes. My protagonist, antiques appraiser Josie Prescott, loves to cook. Often she uses the cookbook…
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…
I just spent half of last week with a good friend who never had children. She wanted to have children but she married later and spent years trying in vitro and time conspired. She isn’t my only childless friend. I have two other close friends who have no children. One isn’t married and is reaching the age when it’s likely she never will have children and another is married but…
I first encountered Dallas Hudgens when I moderated a panel about con-men in fiction on which he appeared for the Virginia Festival of the Book. I’m not usually inclined toward the genre, so was most pleasantly surprised to find I could not put down Dallas’ novel, SEASON OF GENE. It’s the story of a sad-sack group of scammers and wise-guys whose losing weekend baseball team is drawn into the ultimate…
