How to find and savor solitude
I’m the kind of person who thrives on solitude. Not all the time (that, I fear, would make me lonely). But sometimes. I recently had a few days to myself, and I hadn’t even realized how much I needed them because of all the activity that comes from releasing a new...
Don’t be defeated by outside evaluations
I’d just recorded a video about how not everyone will like our books and we can’t possibly please everyone—and I got a trade review that rubbed all my insecure places. The reviewer clearly didn’t “get” the book and missed the whole point of it. She focused on strange...
Love what you do and know that it matters
Have I mentioned I love what I do? This is a frequent joke between my husband and me—because I mention it at least two times a week. I really, really love what I do. When people ask me if there’s a part of my writing process that I don’t like, I usually have a hard...
Fight for what matters
Battles are not my favorite. My first teenager fought his father and me about every little tiny thing; he had an endless energy to fight, it seemed, and it wore my husband and me down. Fortunately, the next teenager who came along was a laid-back, delightful kid. We...
How to write a book: build a writing practice
I have always been a person of action. It’s good to sit around and dream and talk about what we want to do. My husband and I have regular dream sessions, in which we dream about where we want to be in the future. We write things down and make seemingly...
How to slow down the speed of life
One of my goals for this year is to take off all the school holidays with my kids. It’s been my goal for several years, actually. But I always seem to find one reason or another not to do it. My sons recently had a winter break, which gave them a five-day...
What it means to live with integrity—and how to do it
When my kids were young, we identified some family values and spent a few years examining them. It was a way for us to frame our family lives, a way of living with integrity. We chose values like listening well, embracing creativity, honoring all people, believing in...
The power of reflection for focusing our goals
Every new year comes with a bit of reflection. We may do it consciously or unconsciously, but there’s something about a new year that encourages reflection. All those things that have passed and happened in the year before. Or all the years before. Everything we hope...
Cultivating generosity can make us live longer
I write all kinds of books, but my favorites include books for children and teens. I spend the bulk of my time writing those. And some people like to know why. There are several reasons. But one of the biggest is to “lift as I climb,” as poet Angela Davis says. (The...
Practicing gratitude can transform our attitudes and lives
Nearly every weekday morning, I log onto zoom, where I meet with a group of authors to first write and then discuss our writing time or whatever’s going on in our lives. Recently, we’ve begun adding a time of naming our gratitude, before diving into talks about...