We’ve spent time in the country the past two weekends at my grandparents’ ranch. This is my favorite place to be.
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I’m taking a little break from novel-writing this week to make a video essay for the upcoming Mom 2.0 Summit in Houston. My friend Laura has organized an art show during the conference that will try to honor the amazing things that women are doing online–and the way that having a public place that we […]
About five minutes ago, I sent the first three chapters of my new novel to my editor at Random House. It doesn’t have a title yet, and it won’t come out until Spring 2012. But it’s a crazy thrill to have the beginning in solid shape, and to send it off for feedback. I’ve been […]
I stumbled across this German cover for The Bright Side of Disaster this morning! At first, because of the cake, I thought it must be Everyone Is Beautiful. But there’s nobody pregnant in Everyone Is Beautiful — not really, anyway — so I think it must be Bright Side! The German version is extra-fun because […]
One of the most perfect, delectable, romantic movie scenes ever. Happy holidays.
I can never find the phone. Ever. I spend about half my day circling the house, looking for a ringing cordless. But it’s not there. It’s buried under something. But I don’t know what. I don’t know why I can’t remember to put it back on the base when I’m done talking. But I can’t. […]
Down here in Texas, we have to work hard to create winter. It’s not really a season in Houston, exactly. It’s more like a series of fronts that blow the heat away for a few months, a couple of days at a time. So holiday decorations have a kind of make-believe quality. Like we’re pretending […]
I have one of those moms who’s a superhero. There is nothing she can’t handle. She should have been the President, and I’m not kidding. But then I never would have gotten to see her. And I love to see her. So it was a good deal for me that she wasn’t the President. But […]
I’ve been feeling feisty lately. The brouhaha over Publishers Weekly’s Top Ten books of 2009 — which had no women authors on it — has left me thinking a lot about women’s place in our cultural conversation. And, as I’ve been driving my carpools and snaking the grocery store aisles, I’ve been composing an essay […]
I stumbled on this little moment in our old home movies over the weekend and couldn’t believe how sweet it was. And so I made this video. (I’m the little blond sister, by the way…) [BlueTube]04u0RTAxLn8[/BlueTube]
It’s my 9-year wedding anniversary this week. (Nine years married, fifteen together.) And so, a nine-best ode to my awesome husband. Here are nine great things about him — though, really, I could go on and on: 9. The mustache. 8. The pants. 7. The way he is so completely stoked to have a wife […]
I spoke on a panel last weekend at the Texas Book Festival with the very charming Jancee Dunn, who has a baby. Fellow panelist and Houston author Gwendolyn Zepeda and I wound up giving her parenting advice. And while we were talking, I heard myself say something very true. It can be so easy to […]
Here’s another before and after. A really awesome mod chair from my grandfather’s building materials company that I snagged from my mom’s garage a few weeks ago: And now, in my living room, freshly back from the upholsterer’s: I’ve kinda fallen in love with this chair, but it didn’t happen until after it got its […]
Last spring, the amazing Mary Swenson took these photos for me in response to a quote I sent her from Everyone Is Beautiful. She broke the quote down by sentences, and took a photo for each one. Then we ran the photos in sequence and made a video. But the photos are so amazing, they […]
For the record, I’m all for store-bought costumes at Halloween. We’ve had many at our house. But this year, I got inspired to create. My son said he wanted to be Fire Man, and my daughter instantly said, “And I can be Water Girl!” And I just thought those were such rockin’ superheroes for my […]