I’m in Chicago, it’s Mother’s Day weekend. I won’t be with my husband and daughter on Sunday, and my mom died a few years ago, I’m here for auditions for the reading of SQUASHED The Musical, the most fun new venture — a musical of my first novel, SQUASHED, the book that got me started in … Continued
I had a dumb accident two weeks ago, browning a chicken in a 450 degree oven; my wrist touched the heating element and…well…it was a bad, bad burn. I iced, covered it with antibiotic cream, non stick bandages, picturing the scar that would come. Day after day I slathered it with ointment, kept it covered, … Continued
I started crying for no apparent reason yesterday. Was it the mess in the kitchen? Not enough to warrant tears. Was it was concern about someone I love? I didn't think so. But of course, it was Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week, the week my mom and I shared more uniquely than any … Continued
I just had one of those moments that makes you wonder…
the power of stillness in a noisy world
Protecting kids. It’s there inside of us. It’s in our DNA.
Perishable. Please open immediately. Life’s like that, the little moments that we need top open right away, or they’ll be gone…
The school shooting in Newtown CT happened to our kids, to our teachers. The loss is too deep, it can’t be understood, but what we must do in their memory and in the name of rightness and reason is to draw a line in the sand and say, No More. Everyone can do something. People … Continued
When I was trying to break in as a new writer, sometimes I would drag myself to my desk, asking the wrong question —Does the world really need another story? Early in my career, I posed a similar question to a rowdy group of high school freshman who were not listening to much of … Continued
I found an old letter from a friend who had been battling leukemia.
The turkey is gone, the carcass has been made into soup, Black Friday is history, and maybe the spirit of Thanksgiving feels like it's wearing thin. Keeping Thanksgiving is a lot like keeping a friend's place in line. You guard it. Very deliberately… Each day, no kidding, no exception. No matter what's going on, how … Continued
Among the throng of readers devouring books out there, and we writers just want to say, thank you, there is a little realized approach to reading that can bring unique fulfillment: Imagine what the writer was going through when she or he wrote what you have in your hands. For as much drama as the book you are now reading might possess, as much wonder as it might stir within you, trust me, the drama of actually getting that thing to print is a story in itself.
A bad storm like Sandy keeps coming long after it stops. We're left with the wreckage and the clean up and the ghastly feeling, and all the while trying to hold onto hope. I've always had a bone to pick with Emily Dickinson who said, "Hope is the thing with feathers…" I suppose some hope … Continued
Nobody gets better mail than those of us who write for kids. Here’s one that made my day.
The challenge of homeless children and what ordinary people can do.
My water heater reached it's expiration date. I never think about my water heater. I don't go down in the basement, look at it, pat it, and think, ah, here's my water heater. I had forgotten it was eleven years old, and had over-reached its ten year warranty. But then I took a shower and … Continued
I signed up for an on-line diet, nutrition, and exercise overhaul and I was oozing with diligence when I signed up, so much so that I must have checked fourteen boxes about things I was interested in like fighting belly flab and frequent, fabulous fun ways to fend off food cravings. And I have at … Continued
Joan Bauer talks about her new novel, ALMOST HOME.
I haven't been blogging. It's been quite a while, actually, but I have been writing, some in entirely new ways. I've actually started writing some songs, and it's all quite wonderful and crazy, because I used to do this when I was a teenager. I taught myself the guitar and I wrote songs back then. … Continued
A hydrangea that I thought had died pushes up in my garden. A vine I thought wasn't going to make it began thriving in the last two weeks. The age-old lilac tree that we were going to cut down because it never bloomed, flourished this year. I took a tree class today with my neighbors … Continued