Y’all, something AMAZING happened last week: the statue of John C. Calhoun in downtown Charleston, SC–where my husband is from, and where we lived from 2016 to 2018–was taken down, in recognition of its racist history. As my brother-in-law recently explained it online, “Calhoun was a pro-slavery White supremacist, who also had a career as a politician. He was the … Read More
The House Is on Fire and the Children Are Inside: Why Climate Fiction Matters
Like most people, I understand, intellectually, that what science is telling us is the truth, but I can’t really feel it. Until a story forces me to.
A Little Bird Told Me
Like over a million Americans this weekend, I attended a March for Our Lives rally, protesting gun violence in America and calling on our elected officials for stricter gun laws. And while it’s true that I have been involved in activism of some sort since my undergraduate years (like the characters in my novel Hot Season), I do not enjoy … Read More
Winning Without Washington
For the next week, I’ll be on a writing retreat on the Oregon Coast working on my next novel, World’s Smallest Parade. I’ve been working with some of the exercises developed by one of my sheroes, the master book coach Jennie Nash, on the blueprint for this novel, and this morning, I worked out the short description, or elevator pitch. … Read More
