So, in celebration of Fish on a Bicycle going on pre-sale at DSP, I thought I’d give a little bit of love to my friend Rhae, who is currently having some trouble with contractors and needs some vengeance.  *  *  * Chaos and Cooking Jackson had put the folder together the day before, and but… Read More

I know I’m getting stressed when I start pulling out ALL THE PATTERN BOOKS so I can start a new… name it. Pair of socks, scarf, sweater, what-have-you. The fact is, I’ve got one scarf and three shawls on the hooks/needles RIGHT NOW and a pair of socks that has a deadline but OMG I… Read More

I am working on a “shawl”– a shawl that’s 80 inches long and 13 inches deep, so, it’s more like a scarf. I tell Mate, “I was thinking I would work an extra twenty-two rows so this shawl could have more depth but–“ Mate: So the shawl could have more what? Me: You know, depth?… Read More

So, with one thing or another, this question has come up, and I thought I’d answer it here so I could refer people back to it. Some of you may know that Bonfires and Crocus aren’t just available in trade paperback– the large-sized, limited batch paperbacks that are traditional for independent publishers. They were made… Read More

 So today we got home and I took the kids to dance so both Mate and I could get a nap. Today we worried about whether the garbage would get collected and when the dogs had vets appointments and whether the laundry would get done. There was dishes to do and word counts to reach… Read More

Actually this story ends better than that song, so I”ll stop right there. (Song was “My Life” by Billy Joel. Good tune!) Anyway–in the spring of ’82, our school got two bomb threats that resulted in all the students stuck outside in the football stadiums for two and three hours at a time. I would… Read More

I’m going to be honest here. I’m a horrible knitter. All the strengths I have in crochet– stitch regularity, gauge precision, pattern awareness, structural awareness–completely desert me when I go from one hook to two sticks. I can’t even explain it. And the thing is, I love the knitting process so much! Crochet is big… Read More

Oh my God–it’s like I’m finally coming up for air. I’ve been telling people that I wrote an amazing number of words in six months– 450,000. I sort of made up for that by taking an entire two months to write Fall Through Spring, and now I’m super under the gun writing Silent Heart.  But, back… Read More

So, I am possibly the most socially awkward person on the planet, and I am more likely to offend people than not. Every lesson I know about etiquette and how to comport yourself in public I’ve learned from friends of mine who were civilized when I met them and I owe them a tremendous debt… Read More

So I was in the mood for a Randy Beaman story, and I figured I’d borrow one from YouTube for those of you who are new to the oeuvre. So here goes–here’s my Randy Beaman story. So this one time when I was teaching my AP English kids were taking the AP test and this… Read More