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I tried making summer rolls for the first time tonight–I love them, and once I looked at a recipe, it didn’t seem so hard. I’d say it was a success. There’s something really satisfying about soaking and arranging and rolling up the rice paper.  It’s as much like an art project as it is a meal, especially…

I’ve gone to bed between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. for the last four nights, exhausted, wanting to sleep, but not letting myself go to bed. It’s all because I decided to reread all the Harry Potters. I sort of underestimated their allure. I think that the first time around–for books 5, 6, and 7, at least–I…

I’ve just found a letter someone wrote me that I should have responded to about a year and a half ago. It’s my first  letter from a reader for The Well and the Mine. It’s lovely and smart and very kind, and it nearly made me cry. It’s the kind of letter you have to answer.…

I admit, partly I just really wanted to type “Franzenfreude.” If you haven’t heard: “Schadenfreude is taking pleasure in the pain in others. Franzenfreude is taking pain in the multiple and copious reviews being showered on Jonathan Franzen.” That’s according to author Jennifer Weiner, who, judging by that particularly perfect invented word, can really write.…

If I had my choice of my ideal place to write, it’s not my office or a coffee shop or the dining room table (all of which are fine second choices). I want to be outside. In open air. Looking at blue sky and trees and feeling the breeze blow through porch, ideally with a hint…

Last week ESPN ran an hour-long reality show that went behind the scenes of Alabama football practice. (Full title: Rolling With the Alabama Crimson Tide. But on our viewing guide, it got shortened to the above blog title.) I think it was last week–it all blurs together what with the repeated viewings. My husband recorded it and…

I just had an e-mail from someone asking for advice on getting a first book published. That happens fairly often, either in e-mail or by phone or running into someone in the grocery store–it’s usually the friend of a friend of a friend or  someone who knows someone who goes to church with my mother.…

I don’s usually have a stack of books on my bedside table–I like to finish one book before I start another. Usually that means I buy them one at a time according to my mood at the time. But after a particularly eclectic trip to the bookstore, I came home with Hunger Games by Suzanne…

Why do dogs love dead things? It’s like there’s no bigger treat than to roll in a nice decomposing mouse or to snatch up a dead bird. When we walk the dog, we’re on constant high alert for any potential little corpses along the sidewalk. If Javier spots something dead before we do, he’s chomping…

For anybody around the Birmingham area, I want to put in a plug for a really funky, fantastic coffee shop out in Bessemer. That’s right–Bessemer. If you thought you knew every coffee shop in town, this one’s a little off the regular circuit. It’s called Coffee Shoppee, and it’s at 2145 Bessemer Road. I was there…