If Thanksgiving Were an Awards Show
I’ve got my acceptance speech ready ME (stands at podium, clutching Golden Turkey award, gasps in surprise and delight): Gosh, this is so unexpected! I’m just honored to be in the company of so many amazing dinner hosts, all of whose work I deeply admire. I know I wouldn’t be standing here if it weren’t…
Not Hearing From Your Writer Friends?
An explanation and apology in 21 haiku Know a novelist?If they’re out of touch right now,There’s a good reason. It’s NaNoWriMo(National Novel WritingMonth), so these haiku Are not exactlykosher. Trust me, I’m aware,but cut me some slack. Because I’m doingNaNo again this year, whichmeans 30 days to Write 50,000words of an ugly rough draftof a…
I Just Want To Get Along
But it’s getting harder We had our kitchen cabinets painted this week. The painting contractor, a very nice man whose services we’d used years ago when we lived here previously, gave us an estimate that made our eyes pop, but that’s what good work costs these days. And his guys were good. They showed up…
Give Me Some Lip
In praise of our oral perimeters There are things in life that we take for granted, even when we pay attention to them. Traffic signs. Mailboxes. Gravity. And, it occurred to me this morning as I was putting on makeup, our lips. In the interests of decorum, I will establish that what we are talking…
Tripping Towards Eternity
Could psychedelics ease suffering for the dying — and those they leave behind? A few months ago, one of my best friends introduced me to an organization called End Well. A non-profit foundation, it was founded in 2017 by Dr. Shoshana Ungerleider, who hosts the TED Health Podcast and is a frequent medical contributor on CNN,…
The Season of Letting Go
My husband and I have embraced our new life as climate refugees, fleeing from our beloved but fire-scorched Northern California back to our former home in Idaho. In NorCal, October had become a season of dread, every warm breeze sparking the fear of another wildfire, another evacuation, another litany of who’s lost their home, another…
You Can Check Out Any Time You Like (But Good Luck Unsubscribing)
There are email lists you’re probably happy to be on You purposely signed up for them, so you could get the helpful newsletter, or never miss a new podcast episode or one of your favorite writers’ articles, or know what’s going on in your neighborhood. Maybe there are organizations you support and appreciate hearing from…
Why I Wrote The Book
The story behind The Moon Ran After Her This novel began with a crime. More accurately, a striation of crimes, like upended layers of sediment. The top layer was a purse snatching. Nobody knew Grandma Aghavni’s exact age, since her family records were among hundreds of thousands destroyed in the tumult that devastated her people.…