“[A] thoroughly enjoyable girlish romp.” – Library Journal “Center delivers an original, engaging, and touching novel populated with quirky and lovable characters, and ripe for discovery by readers looking for a cheering read.” – Booklist “Center has hit a home run with Get Lucky . . . There is no other author out there who does women’s fiction better.” – Wendy Robards, book […]
So we had the book launch party for Get Lucky on Saturday. I really wasn’t sure how many people would show up, but I knew it would be a fun time. Especially since I’d be reading the first chapter of the book, which is pretty feisty. The opening paragraph is all about how the main […]
Dear Jamie Oliver, I am enjoying your show. And while I may never truly recover from watching you make a chicken nugget by putting a carcass in a food processor, bones and all, and then squeezing the goo through a strainer–I do feel like sharing that moment with you somehow made me a better person. […]
I had such a fun time this morning talking with Christopher Gabriel on his radio program at WDAY in Fargo, North Dakota. Of course, I wasn’t in Fargo. I was home, in my pajamas. As all writers should be at all times. We had a great chat, and I found myself thinking, afterwards, about how […]
Get Lucky is a novel about many different things, but one of them is sisters. I have two sisters, myself–I’m the middle one–and so I know a lot about the subject. Here’s a book trailer I made using my mom’s Super 8 home movies of us as children. The redhead who’s working so hard on […]
Here’s a fun audio clip of me reading a paragraph or two from Get Lucky! Click here to listen.
I spend a lot of time looking at this windowsill. It’s right above our kitchen sink and right across from the stove, so here I am most nights, chopping, grating, and sautéeing things. Right now, in spring, the back door is always open when I’m there, and the kids are usually out back. I listen […]
The concept of sisterhood is an ongoing theme throughout the book. Are Mackie and Sarah foil characters? Does sisterhood strengthen the bond between two opposite people or stifle and complicate personal freedom? Do you have a sister of your own? I have two sisters of my own—and no brothers. And it’s funny to me how, […]
It’s been a long month of sick kids (and parents) at my house. And even though I knew there would be many, many, many of my favorite people at the Mom 2.0 Summit last weekend, I had to scramble pretty hard to get there. But I made it. And it was so good in so […]
We’ve been sick for two solid weeks around here. And I am a champion worrier. I can worry you under the table. You don’t know what worrying is until you’ve met me. If I could take my worrying to the Olympics, I’d bring home the gold, baby. I’d have my own line of sneakers. […]
Plenty of surreal things have happened in my life. But I’m not sure I’ve ever quite felt anything like it feels to look at this: It’s my first novel, The Bright Side of Disaster, in Czech. It is indescribably bizarre to flip through a book that YOU wrote–and not be able to read a word. […]
The images in the Mom 2.0: Defining a Movement video that I made all came from real photographers–women who are working on their craft every day. I am not a real photographer. But I did sneak in one of my own photos when I made the video. Just one. This one’s mine. It’s a heart […]
My friend Laura asked me to make a video for the Mom 2.0 Summit art show. And here it is! Many thanks to Shutter Sisters for allowing me to use photos from the site. And many thanks to the amazing photographers: Karen Walrond, Jenny Lawson, Tracey Clark, Sarah Ji, Kristin Zecchinelli, Irene Nam, and Meredith […]
My grandparents’ ranch is on the Brazos river, a perpetually brown, sandy-bottom river outside Houston. I’ve paced around its shores on trips to the ranch my whole life, and now we take our kids there and they do the same thing. Its amazing to watch history repeat itself like that, and I’m happy to report […]
We’ve spent time in the country the past two weekends at my grandparents’ ranch. This is my favorite place to be.