Blog
Reading Iceland
My husband and I will be in Iceland in five short weeks. While I'm excited to (I hope) see the Northern Lights and go on a glacier hike, there's something really fascinating about Iceland's literary scene that I'm looking forward to seeing first-hand. Apparently, one...
Embracing Porteños: Buenos Aires
I emerged from Ezeiza International Airport this past Saturday into blissfully cool air. Philadelphia, when I left, was nearly tropical, but Buenos Aires weather reminded me of an early spring day. The woman from the booth where I arranged transport into the city...
Sleepytime
Sleep and I have a funny relationship. Like everyone else, I love to sleep, but it also makes me a little nervous. Part of it is the concept of dreaming (don't tell me Freddy Kreuger doesn't pop into your head sometimes), part of it is the idea of being unconscious...
That white male writers are most often reviewed and wind up winning awards and find themselves on "best of" and "summer reading" lists at places like the New York Times (NYT) is no surprise. It is and has been a white man's world in many respects for a very long time,...
Off to the Twitter Wars: Communications vs Sales
The Internets are all a-buzz with news of Twitter's terrible earnings, predicting the end of Twitter. Maybe no and maybe so. Surely, we've all been hearing the same about Facebook since its IPO in 2012 (and even long before that). Social media popularity ebbs and...
A Field Full of Poppies
Cobblestones are dangerous, dangerous things. Slippery, even for sure-footed people on a bright, sunshine-y day. I get that they’re charming, and I get that they’re historically accurate . . . but they’re a recipe for disaster, especially when it’s pouring down rain...
Twenty-Four Hours in San Francisco
San Francisco is hell on the calves. I knew this. Yes, yes, I did. I've been to San Francisco maybe half a dozen times over the last 15 years or so, and I've had a great time each visit. Great, but tiring--the steep hills all over SF are hard to deal with. That said,...
The Art of Book Signing
Books signings are always the most fascinating couple of hours of my life. So last night I was in Bethany Beach, Delaware for an author event at Bethany Beach Books, a great independent book shop just off the beach. It was a Friday night in August with damn near...
How Many Books Does it Take to Get to Toronto?
I equate travel with reading time. You're stuck in an airport or an airplane for hours on end, so what else are you going to do? For me, I either knit or read or catch up on Welcome to Night Vale. Sometimes all three. So last Friday I decided to head to Toronto for a...
I Am Not Embarrassed.
Let us discuss literary fiction and sales. It's no secret that it's incredibly difficult to sell a novel that is considered literary fiction, and that sales of literary fiction have been decreasing to the point where writers have been bemoaning the death of that...
The #BookCon2014 Wrap-Up
So . . . BookCon. What can I say about my experience at BookCon today? I'll start with the positive: the We Need Diverse Books panel was really excellent. A few of the organizers talked a bit about how WNDB came to be and why we need diverse books, and writer Ellen Oh...
I Am Guilty: Traveling Alone While Female
Traveling while female scares people. Particularly the idea of traveling alone while female. I've been thinking about it a lot lately. In another couple of weeks I'm going to have access to quite a bit of free and/or dirt cheap travel due to a family member scoring a...
