the writer's life

CAPE DISAPPOINTMENT: SHOULD YOU GIVE UP ON YOUR NOVEL?

Last month, I flew to Oregon to visit my daughter. Our mission, in part, was to find her a wedding dress, but because neither of us is much of a

I went on a writing retreat recently. Nothing fancy; this wasn't one of those places where you're in a cabin in the mountains and people

This week is a big one for me. I'm celebrating both the launch of Chance Harbor, my fourth novel with Penguin Random House, and my twentieth wedding

Tomorrow I'm headed to Prince Edward Island for a long weekend. This is no easy feat. From my house in Massachusetts, it takes a

It's a blessing to take a writer's retreat, whether you do it officially at a place like Yaddo or the MacDowell

Every year, when my husband asks what I want for my birthday, my answer is always the same: “To run away from home.” This year, he

There are few things more satisfying than publishing a novel: You get to make things up! You get to put yourself in other people's

We all have mornings like the one I had today: making breakfast, using the cattle prod to get kids off to school, kitchen

One of the best ways to elevate a book—no matter what the genre—from merely good to truly great is to sniff out stale images and