All my life, whenever I’ve had to list my interests, reading and writing have been at the top of the list, always together. They are a logical matched pair, I think. And as a writer, I’ve found that reading is absolutely essential to improving myself and my writing. Though I normally stick to fiction that …
My day typically starts early, making breakfast and packing lunch for my son. My daughter usually makes an appearance early and eats too. Then, my son takes a shower, gets dressed and we walk to the bus stop. After that, my day becomes a flurry of activity. My daughter is usually home with me, and …
My whole life, I have been a PC. When my company transitioned to Macs a few years back, I was a hold out — refusing to give up my PC until they forcibly removed it. I was devastated, even though the shiny new Mac was really pretty. Yes, I said pretty. But now, with my …
When the email arrived months ago, inviting me to speak at the BlogHer 2010 Conference in New York, I could barely contain my excitement. Speaking at a conference full of passionate female bloggers on a subject that’s near and dear to my heart (raising kids who eat good food) in my city – my very …
A few months back, I ran into a writer/editor friend of mine while in the city for a training. I was learning how to use a new CMS for a client; she was freelancing as an editor for the same client. When we chatted, she said in surprise, “I didn’t know you were a techy!” …
When I heard about the now-infamous New York Times Style section article about so-called mommy bloggers at Bloggy Boot Camp, I located it and read it. The tweets and Facebook statuses that I read were so put-off by it that I just had to. Honestly, I expected that it would be a critical look at …
Writing a lede is like walking a tight rope: you have one shot to place one foot in front of the other and make it across … otherwise, it’s certain death. Dramatic? Yes. True? Absolutely. Quite simply, without a good lede, you may never have a reader dig any deeper into what you are writing. …
It’s nearly the end of the year. In just over a day, we will bid farewell to 2009 and welcome 2010. While nothing technically changes when one year ends and a new one begins, it is a time when many people set new goals and look for a new beginning. As a writer, I typically …
I used to hate when people would say that a good writer writes what they know. What did I know? At 20, I went to work for a New York publishing house … that published directories of influential people. Not very exciting. Months later at 21, I left to write for a tiny newspaper in …
