I did it!  I finished the Picture Book Idea Month challenge with 32 picture book ideas.   Some are fully-fledged ideas, some are mere scra...

Last week, I went with my 7th grade daughter on a class field trip to the zoo.  Whenever I chaperone, my kids and their friends bombard me w...

As you know, last week, the worst day ever turned into the best day ever, when I found out that I won a copy of Anna Staniszewski's  d...

Have you ever noticed that one unexpected thing can turn your whole day around, for better or worse? On Tuesday morning, I woke up earlier...

Happy November, everybody! This is the month when writers and aspiring authors everywhere set crazy writing goals, and sometimes achieve t...

October is a crazy busy month at our house.  Fall field trips for school, music performances and lessons, church youth group activities, aft...

I started writing my second novel a while ago.  This one was more difficult than the first, mostly because the subject is something very clo...

I recently decided that I needed to simplify my life.  I was getting too bogged down with a million little tasks that kept me running in a h...

With the recent anniversary of 9/11 and Veteran's Day coming up in just over a month, I've been thinking a lot lately about the me...

I want to tell you something that I hope you will take in the right way: God is fully aware that you and I are not perfect. Let me add: G...

Today is my big sister's birthday (Happy Birthday, Carin!), but we live in different time zones, and it's sometimes nearly impossibl...

I recently read an amazing book: THE TRUTH ABOUT TRUMAN SCHOOL , by Dori Hillestad Butler (2008).                  Zebby and Amr want to...

Everyone has a story, everyone knows where they were and what they were doing when the terrorist attacks occurred on September 11th, 2001.  ...

Two weeks ago, my husband took a day off of work so we could surprise the kids with a trip to Hershey Park for the last official day of summ...

It's been quite an interesting couple of weeks here on the East Coast.  First, we had an earthquake, which by West Coast standards, wasn...

We had an earthquake today, here on the East Coast.  Apparently, it was a pretty big one (in area covered, not necessarily strength), becaus...

Last night, I took my son to a youth activity for church (pool party for the young men and young women, aged 12-18).  He doesn't have ma...

This week, I decided I was really going to follow the advice Liz Szabla (editor at Feiwel and Friends) gave me at a recent SCBWI event.  Whe...

This weekend, we had the amazing opportunity (as we do every 6 months) to listen to the General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of...

I was so excited, last weekend, to hear Jason Wright talk about the idea of "pouring concrete" when it comes to writing. He said...