I’ve been working on my new novel for a couple months now (working title: The Rose of Galilee).  It’s about a reclusive amateur rose breeder who has nearly perfected a new breed of rose, until the arrival of her wayward niece throws her world into turmoil. I have always loved roses.  Back when we owned…

Last weekend was the American Library Association’s mid-winter conference. Since I’m here in San Diego now, it was no problem to shoot down to the convention center, where Penguin had three boxes of books waiting for me to sign. I even met a lady who had interviewed me for the Underground Literary Society. I’d never…

I saw this mushroom house over on Frugal Family Fun, a blog filled with creative and doable projects for young kids, and immediately bought a tub of oatmeal. I wanted to make the house immediately but it took me about two months to eat it all because I’m the only one who eats oatmeal, and…

“They make you look like a cheap woman!” my youngest said with a big grin.

The lady who used to live in this house subscribed to a few catalogs. By a few, I mean dozens. The postal carrier arrived laden with catalogs bundled together with a thick rubber band, too big to put into the mailbox, every day during December. Most were of no use to us, but they’re fun…

Elyse and I decided to do an occasional mother-daughter vlog. We didn’t have a set theme, so we chatted about whatever came to mind.

One big bummer last year was that we didn’t have a Christmas tree. We had a small Christmas plant that I bought at Foodland, because trees in Hawaii were expensive, obviously, because they’re grown on the Mainland; and we didn’t have any ornaments. We rescued our ornaments from my brother-in-law’s attic. And guess what else…

If you’re a writer in Hawaii or need of a reason to visit, William Bernhardt (the guy who taught the 60 index card outlining method that I use) is teaching a few workshops in Honolulu and Maui in late January/early February. He’s also teaching in Oklahoma, but unless you’re already in Oklahoma I figure Hawaii…