When I was 22-years-old, my friend Caroline was killed. It was five o’clock in the afternoon on a sunny street in San Diego. She was driving home from work and a drunk tow-truck driver blew a red light and slammed into the driver’s side door of her car. She died instantly.… Read full post »

Since I was a child, I wanted to be a writer. As a little girl… Read full post »

In 2004, PBS Kids launched Postcards from Buster, a show about an animated rabbit who visits real-life families across America. It was an innocuous little show, but my kids were six and four at the time, and we spent many hours during the long cold Minnesota winters watching anything PBS… Read full post »

I am not a good dancer.

This is not my “mortifying disclosure” however it would have been a helpful revelation to make to Joe Walsh’s  back up dancers when they asked me if I wanted to come on stage during the show. But they were cute, and I was young… Read full post »

Let me begin by admitting right up front that I did not sign up for the Avon Two Day Walk for Breast Cancer because I am driven to change the world, or to avenge the death of a loved one. While I am aware of the devastation that breast… Read full post »

Despite every voice in my head begging me not to, I watched the first episode of Skins at MTV’s website yesterday. And I admit it, I was appalled, but not because it was rife with 16-year-olds having sex and taking drugs.

I question any person with access to cable… Read full post »

I was 26-years-old and it was the first time I had ever traveled for business. A mere two months into my first real job as a trade magazine writer, I was flying to Dallas to cover an annual conference of mechanical engineers. I had a shiny new American Express corporate card… Read full post »

As every writer knows, the act of writing is a lonely process. You can talk about your book, wax poetic about your goal of writing 1000 words a day, even brag about your progress as you move the literary  narrative steadily forward or tackle a key point in the plot. But… Read full post »

This week I received two requests for chapters from queries I sent to agents. A day later I attended a funeral for a child. Her name was Louise. She was 10-years-old and she attended school with my kids. 

Two weeks ago I wrote a blog on how sad I was about getting… Read full post »

This is my first Teaser Tuesday posting, ala the Twitter group, so I hope you enjoy. This is from the first chapter of my unpublished but finished novel, The Three of Us. 

The setup: A couple is driving to the hospital with their son who has just been hit by a… Read full post »

 Because American families come in all shapes, and sizes, and shades.

On the beach in Benton Harbor, Michigan.  Read full post »

A little girl died today.

I did not know her, but I felt like I did. She went to school with my kids, and my sister was her teacher.

She had cancer. She fought it for a year, but today she lost that fight. Last week… Read full post »

This week I made a triumphant discovery.

I am not alone.

Apparently the world is full of rejected writers, some of whom have completed this journey successfully, found an agent, and went on to publishing fame; some who  never found an agent, but are still… Read full post »

Sunday was a good day. Despite overcast skies, I spent a glorious afternoon watching my son play in his soccer championship on the fields along the lovely Chicago lakefront. After a impressive second place finish in his division, we headed home to dine on a tender – and not at all… Read full post »

When I started writing this book I had an ace in the hole. My friend and colleague Wendy Webb, author of the brilliant new novel, The Tale of Halcyon Crane promised me that once it was finished she would read it; and if she liked it – how could she not… Read full post »

Last night at my son’s playoff  baseball game – go As! – I had a long conversation with a woman who is the grandmother of one of my son’s teammates. For the most part, it was your garden variety Little League parent chatter. We discussed the joys of living in Chicago,… Read full post »

I have written a novel!

(pause for applause).

That’s right, after a lifetime of dreaming about becoming a novelist, and two decades of a fairly lucrative career as a freelance journalist, I finally took the leap and wrote, what I am confidant will be the Great American… Read full post »

I was sitting at dinner with a friend recently while her nine-year-old daughter Gigi, a classmate of my own daughter, told a long rambling story about her day at school. In typical mom listening fashion, I smiled and nodded while catching only about every third word of what she… Read full post »

This is one of the many life lessons that my grandmother passed on to me as she pounded dough and  stuffed turkeys on her old farmhouse kitchen.

She lived in a tiny Minnesota town that existed in a bubble, 30 years behind the rest of the world.  While most/… Read full post »

To begin, I’m not a sadist or a child abuser. I love my kids and I hate to see them cry. It makes my heart ache and my head buzz when their tears start and the wailing picks up,  and I’d do anything to stop them from crying. Usually.

But… Read full post »

"David who?"

I admit this was not the most auspicious way to start a conversation with the man who 13 months later I would marry.

His name was David Gale and we had gone to college together. I always had a thing for David Gale, with his sparkly blue eyes and… Read full post »

"There are a flock of turkeys in your backyard."

This was the first observation I made to my fiancée on the morning after arriving at his family home in Arkansas for Thanksgiving. We'd been together for four months and it was the first time I would meet his parents.

"Those aren't turkeys,… Read full post »

Fashion Victim

It is time for school. At five minutes past seven my kids have between 10 and 30 minutes to finish breakfast, brush their teeth, and be ready to be picked up; yet my seven-year-old daughter has still not come downstairs.

Mortified by her brother’s insistence on wearing whatever i… Read full post »