I’m Going To Save You $30,000

All writers learn and do at the same time. Don’t think for a minute that you need to put your book-writing dreams on hold until you’ve earned an MFA. To save you the $30,000, I’d like to share with you what I learned at Harvard; the very thing each writing teacher...

The Kind of Girl You’d Warn Your Sons Off

One of the benefits of writing a book is the visibility it buys you.  Know that saying, build it and they will come?  Well, that’s bullshit. After all that hard work, you’ve actually got to get out there and promote the thing if you want readers, and/or...

What I’m Reading Now

I’ve been gobbling up Annita P. Sawyer’s new book: Smoking Cigarettes, Eating Glass. This was the memoir she was working on when we studied together at Bread Loaf, a prestigious writing conference in Middlebury, Vermont.  Like me, Annita was sitting in class...

Parenting Advice From a Shitty Mother

As a generation, we’ve done our children a grave disservice by continually rescuing them from discomfort, self-created or otherwise. We’ve meant well, but rather than ensuring their success by smoothing the way for them, we’ve created a herd of frustrated, young...