Blog
WRITING
That tell-all you’re dying to write? Read this first.
I'd heard about Careless People long before I finally cracked it open in the airport. It had been sitting in my Kindle alongside all the other fantastic books I swore I’d eventually get to. But once I started the memoir, I couldn't put it down. Which was great,...
The woodcutter who wouldn’t take my money
When we lived in Ireland, a neighbor advertised his wood-cutting services with a hand-painted sign along the road. He'd bring a cord of wood over, and instead of dumping it on the lawn and driving away like any self-respecting American contractor, he'd stack it in the...
The project from hell
Sometime back in May, Walt got it in his head that we should renovate our kitchen. Now, I should mention we'd bought this house sight unseen during the pandemic—intended as a home base for our trips back from Ireland, with Airbnb covering the mortgage the rest of the...
What I’m legally allowed to tell you about the 7 people living rent-free in my brain
People sometimes ask me what it's like to run a hybrid publishing house. The short answer? It's like being a professional eavesdropper who gets paid to learn everyone's secrets—except the secrets are actually really fascinating expertise, and instead of whispering...
READING
Why I finally created book templates (After years of hating them)
As a chemistry major who really shouldn't have been a chemistry major for a whole host of reasons, I nearly lost my mind with physical chemistry. One exercise that I found particularly punishing was proving "proofs" for quantum theorems. I mean, how was I supposed to...
I never finished my book
I was sitting in a workshop at Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, watching Scott Russell Sanders field questions about his career. If you don't know Scott's work, he's written a bunch of books and made his living that way, with a side of teaching thrown in. He's the kind...
What I’m reading now
Every Iranian New Year, we'd drive through Abadan, and I'd watch the flames shooting from the tops of those massive stacks—the oil refinery burning off excess natural gas like some kind of industrial volcano. The infrastructure stretched for acres, a sprawling...
These two turned 60 authors into bestsellers (And I’m still not over it)
I'm not one to brag on clients (okay, that's a lie—I totally am), but Cecilia and Jason Hilkey are the real deal, and I want you to know about them. Here's what happened: These two came to me at the end of 2024 wanting to publish a parenting anthology. Not a solo...
LIFE
Eight Books, Eight Lessons: Why I’m Not Slowing Down
At my 60th birthday party a couple of years back, something interesting happened. A number of my friends started talking about retirement—counting down the days, making plans to "slow down," fantasizing about endless yoga retreats in Mexico and Netflix binges. They...
Your Achilles heel is boring
My friend and I were seated together at a conference. I could practically feel the sparks coming off her, so consumed was she by the desire to be plucked from the crowd and brought onstage for an exercise. Leaning forward, she gripped the chair-back in front of her,...
This is why people cry at art exhibits (and read your book)
In 2010, Marina Abramović did something insane.For seventy-five days straight, she sat in the atrium of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Six days a week. Nearly eight hours a day. No breaks. No food. No water. She didn't speak. Didn't move. She just sat at a...
The blind date that made me realize I was a fraud (and why that was the best thing ever)
I was on a blind date, sitting across from some guy I'd met on Match.com, when he asked what I did for a living. You would have thought I was a street walker, the way I started hemming and hawing. I was so mortified to tell him I was a chemical salesperson—selling...
Check out my book
A no-nonsense guide that teaches writers how to strategically build books using a brick-by-brick content system, focusing on practical results over perfectionism.
Subscribe to my newsletter
Want to know my deal? Well, these are some of my stories. This is my take on life, writing, and reading.