Story endings need to be satisfying, and that means most of the threads that have been woven through should be tied up. But in fiction, everything doesn’t need to be happily ever after. There are exceptions, such as most rom-coms, and middle-grade endings need to be hopeful ever after if not happily ever after. In…
Tomorrow’s a big day. You may think you have no power, like a character in a children’s book. But as we know, children in kids’ books end up having a lot of power to solve problems. And tomorrow, you do, too! Cynics will say our votes, our voices don’t count. Oh, cynics. Imagine if everyone…
Halloween is just days away. My sister’s favorite holiday. She liked to be scared (unlike me). It was all fun and games until the fear became personal. My sister, Tammy, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in April of 2008, and lost her struggle just days after her favorite holiday on November 2, 2019. In her…
I’m not an enormous fan of scary books. But there is a large audience ready and waiting for spooky reading material. Here are some that I’ve read and enjoyed. Not too spooky, not too tame. They’re the Goldilocks versions of scary. Just right. Running Out of Night by Sharon Lovejoy (2016). While not technically a…
I first heard that idea from Robin Roberts of CBS This Morning. I believe her mother said it to her when she was struggling with health issues. When you’re in that position it’s easy and completely normal to be down and depressed and uncharitable. Her mother wasn’t being dismissive. When you are in a position…
When I was very young, my parents would tell me and my sister to let them sleep on the weekends. Whatever that looked like for us, that’s what we had to do. I don’t know what my sister did. Actually, I think she used to sleep in on weekends, too. But I was an early…
That was a great line from the movie When Harry Met Sally. I’ll watch pretty much anything starring Meg Ryan. You’ve Got Mail is my Christmas movie go-to. There’s just one scene in it from Christmas, but it’s such a feel-good movie. Just as I will watch anything with certain actors in it, I’m also…
Plans and outlines and hopes and dreams are all fine and dandy, until they’re not. Until Life happens—sticking its nose through the crack in the door that you left open for some fresh air, thinking you were impervious to a stiff breeze. Sometimes, even then, a plan is useful to hold you in place, keep…
Here’s why it pays to read widely, outside of your preferred genre. Ideas spring up like wildflowers from all sources—there for the picking. Part of my morning reading for the past couple of weeks has been a book called Mostly What God Does by Savannah Guthrie. I am not pushing religion on you. I’m just…
Happy Monday! (Or Tuesday or whenever you’re reading this.) Here’s my book list for September. Flora and Ulysses by Kate Dicamillo (Middle Grade fiction, 2013). Flora’s parents are divorced and the situation has made Flora a cynic. Enter squirrel-turned-superhero (because of an unfortunate vacuum incident) Ulysses, whose superpower is misspelled poetry. But will it be…
