This month, and only this month, there are two winners of the free chocolate drawing. Why? Because it is the first month of the contest, but more important, because THEY ARE THE ONLY TWO WHO ENTERED!!
If it’s the “why I should win” portion of the contest entry form that’s intimidating you, don’t let [...]
Late last year I read Jane Smiley’s 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel. What I was most interested in was why she wrote it.
She had been in the middle of writing a new novel when 9/11 struck. Like the rest of us, she lost heart. She also lost confidence in her [...]
I grew up Baptist. Fundamentalist Baptist. Consider of all the things you think that might mean.
One of them is it took a long, long, LONG time until I could accept homosexuality. And as with many prejudices, the thing that finally cured me was finding out that someone I love is gay. [...]
A few years ago I got it into my head to create one grand Life List for myself, listing everything I wanted to learn, do, see, and experience in my lifetime, if possible. I figured the first step to any of it was to actually think about it and write it down.
There [...]
Tonight I went to a lecture on evolution–specifically, evolution as it applies to viruses, such as HIV. And the science professor giving the lecture made the point that people can debate all they want whether evolution is real, but when it comes to HIV, we do not have the luxury of pretending evolution does [...]
Okay, Readers, you’ve heard what some of us writers have to say about our need to promote our own books. Before we set off on our self-financed, 30-city book tours, please tell us what you think:
1. Would you be more likely to buy a book by an author you’ve met in [...]
There’s a hot debate going on right now about whether–and how much–writers need to promote their own books. On one side are writers like Joe Konrath and Barry Eisler (and me) (and many, many others), who believe it is in our own best interest to spend time and yes, even some of our own [...]
It’s hard to digest your oatmeal when this is what waits to greet you in the rest of the paper:
DEAR ABBY: My husband, “Ron,” and I are at odds over parenting our 7-year-old son, “Brett.” My husband is very domestic. He cooks like a world-class chef and does more housework than any man I know [...]
It’s the weekend, and that means we all have time to read, if we choose to. And I suggest we all choose to. Reading is vastly more relaxing than watching TV, and it doesn’t leave that guilty residue.
But since our time is so precious and our choices so immense, it helps to help [...]
This morning a friend of mine said, “So, now that you’re rich and famous are you going to have someone come clean your house every week?” Ah, the decadence of something like that. But the answer is no, in part because I’m not actually rich or famous, and in part because it seems [...]