It occurs to me that coming back from another country feels a little like closing your computer at the end of day when you’re writing a novel. It’s not that easy to turn off the other world—it’s still there, lurking, pressing in around the edges. It’s been nearly three weeks since we got back from…

So my son used to have impressive obsessions–presidents, geography, the solar system–but now it is largely battles. Fights and weapons and warriors. Although at least it’s medieval battles that interest him. You could argue that it’s about history, not violence and mayhem. You could, you know, argue it unsuccessfully. So we build siege weapons and attack…

So A Little Bit of Spectacular was released yesterday, and tomorrow, May 7, 4:30 -6:30 p.m., we’ll have the book launch party at Trattoria Centrale in downtown Birmingham. For anyone who’s able to come, it’s worth it for a) free tasty scones, and b) checking out the bathroom walls where the main character in the book…

I’ve had this bundt pan sitting around forever–I partly just like the word “bundt”–and my son’s newly discovered love of castles and knights and dungeons and moats has FINALLY made it indispensable.    

Occasionally, I fall head over heels in love with a new writer. New to me, at least. It’s a different feeling than only falling in love with a book itself–this is a fizzy-euphoric-buzz-bang of knowing, ahhhh, a writer I will love forever and grow old with.  It is the kind of passion that makes me search…

For anyone who doesn’t know about Calico Critters, they are from some capitalist genius who figured out how to make Barbie gender-neutral…by scrapping the doll and instead creating a line of cute animals who have mansions and sports cars and lake houses and camping expeditions. My three-year-old is captivated by them–we now have dogs and rabbits…

Just a few thoughts here, after coming back from Avondale library with The Boy, who spotted an odd, early-1900s  etching hanging from the library wall as we were leaving. Some guy with a mustache, never identified. Boy: Who is that? Me (scanning for inscriptions): It doesn’t say. Boy: Maybe James Garfield? He’s three now, by…

So I’ve gotten my proofs in for A Little Bit of Spectacular, which comes out next April. Another middle-grade book set here in Birmingham. This one starts with a middle-school girl finding a strange message on a bathroom wall…and then seeing that same message repeated all over town. The bathroom that starts it all is…

I’ve been thinking about soap operas lately. I haven’t watched one in years, but when I was growing up, two things were true of every elementary school girl I knew: We’d all picked whether we liked Bo or Luke Duke, and we all could talk about what happened yesterday on Days of Our Lives. Bo…

We spent last week in the Carolinas, on a family trip based around college visits and a giant indoor water park. Furman, Davidson, Wake Forest, Duke…and Great Wolf Lodge, home to water slides, wolf mascots, and various animatronic characters chirping or growling from every nook and cranny. We like water parks in general. And game…