Like so many others I know, I got caught up in the magic of watching Iowa play basketball this season. It was extra special watching with my in-laws. My father-in-law is a proud native Iowan and U of I alum...
Someone took a photo of me the other day, a headshot for author purposes, and looking at it, I was struck by the fine lines around my eyes. I know thirty-one isn’t “old” and in a few years I will...
Dear Daughter, I’ve started and stopped this letter a half dozen times. Sleep deprivation is like a leaf blower blasting my words into chaotic circles, ruining any attempt at a neat pile of thoughts. But this afternoon I made a...
Imagine that the leaves have fallen. The trees are dead, stripped to spindly, ghostly tentacles. The sun rarely shines, but even the light is cold on your face. When you emerge from your house, the wind lashes you like fleas...
I finished a new novel in May and the book spent the summer with an editor getting spruced. Since September I’ve been in the dreaded query process where I pitch the premise and some sample pages to dozens of literary...
We don’t choose the music we love any more than we choose the color of our eyes. We don’t find it. It finds us. My husband has a soft spot for ‘90s country because that’s what played in the car...
I have been in love with story my entire life: a child reading Nancy Drew in the woods, then a teenager dreaming up plot lines for a new novel during a basketball game timeout. Later, as a college student sucked...
Dear Husband, I used to dream of you. In the center of the mall, surrounded by Christmas shoppers. In between the rows of novels at the bookstore. At the edge of the seashore while couples strolled past hand-in-hand. I used...
Although the decision to push pause on my career took place in the past, every day feels like a crossroads. A choice I must make anew every morning as little hands reach for me and I yawn against too little...
