Upcoming books 2026!

The Press Democrat AND the Petaluma Argus-Courier interviewed Marcia Simmons and me about our play, Mrs. Dickens' Christmas Dinner, which is getting a staged reading here in Petaluma THIS WEEKEND. So exciting to see it come to life! www.pressdemocrat.com/2025/12/16/p...

Last night I groomed my cats because they have fleas, which was unpleasant for us all. Then I had nightmares where the Jellicle cats from the musical Cats! invaded my house & sang at me while putting fleas in my bed. I woke up scratching nonexistent bites. Lesson: Don't kill fleas before bedtime.

As someone who has foraged for mushrooms for years, I don't understand people taking the risks that allow this to happen. Don't eat anything that resembles a death cap or destroying angel or the other deadly ones. Free button mushrooms, or whatever, aren't worth the risk of *check notes* dying.

Duolingo announced it was going “AI-first” just over six months ago. Since then its stock is down 64%.

Me: Welp, I should probably get around to my Christmas shopping... Internet: "Our Favorite Picks For Last-Minute Christmas Gifts." Me: AHHHHHHHH

I wrote a play! It's a comedy. It's called Mrs. Dickens' Christmas Dinner, and it's getting a staged reading by the Petaluma Readers Theater on December 19, 20, and 21. Charles Dickens' wife Kate gets fed up with all the women's work she has to do during the holidays and goes on strike.

I love her.

For @altajournal I wrote about a new play, Last West, about the photographer Dorothea Lange. More here:

What a nice surprise to find that my short story "The Bear" is a Special Mention in this year's Pushcart Prize anthology! Thank you Chicago Quarterly Review for nominating it.

Today is the last time watching the Halloween parade at my son's school and I'm trying not to think too hard on that, lest I start getting weepy.

Wait. Are bumblebees my favorite insects?? 🐝

Thanks to The Forge Literary Magazine for inviting me to read at LitCrawl. I hadn't been in a long time and it felt like old times. Good job celebrating books, everybody.

This has been going through my head for days now. I'm not complaining.

I'm reading at LitCrawl! Come say hi! @theforgemagazine will be at Litcrawl San Francisco, showcasing six of our local authors reading selections of their work on the theme, Forged in the Heart: Tales of Love and Heartache. #theforge #litcrawl #greatwriting

If people unfriend you online in a passive aggressive snit, I highly suggest asking them about it in real life. The underhanded things people do on the Internet wither in the light of day.

This year is the 100th anniversary of one of my favorite novels, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos. For @altajournal I wrote about Loos’s journey from child actor to one of the first and funniest female screenwriters—but not before Loos tried out a little gold digging herself. Read here:

Taylor Swift finding 12 ways to say "I'm famous and jaded, but now I've found real love" is not doing it for me. I think she peaked.

Thank god I can wear long sleeves again.

R.F.K., Jr.: A Day in the Life

cockalorum /kŏk″ə-lôr′əm/ noun A little man with an unduly high opinion of himself.

This is the scariest time ever, so I would think horror movies would be rocking it this year. So far, no.

Me: I really need to cut back on sugar. A half hour later, I'm eating chocolate for breakfast.

Next Wednesday, I'll be speaking in Carmel about the MacGowan sisters, two successful women novelists who survived a mysterious murder attempt involving poisoned marshmallows. It's free to attend. If you're in the area, I hope you can make it.

The Internet is ruining the world.

It's raining and I'm so happy about it!

Since Kim Novak's in the news, here's an old article I wrote about her relationship with Sammy Davis Jr.

It isn't just entry level workers. I know someone who is a Director of Marketing who lost her job because her employers decided they could replace her with a combination of contract workers and AI.

It's starting to seem like Influencers don't live very long...

The story of the mother and baby grey fox investigating our new deck construction, 1: Initial concern, sniffing around, can I fit underneath the boards?

Watching the Internet discover who Ophelia is because Taylor Swift mentioned her on a podcast is equal parts annoying, sad, and oddly cute.

The book criticism landscape is losing another pillar. www.publishersweekly.com/pw/newsbrief...

Americans trying to escape Trump ruining other countries now.

Project Runway has lost the plot. Everyone is mean, there are almost no women contestants, and it weirdly feels like they've forgotten they're making clothes. They're too busy being snotty about being "brilliant," like this show ever invented anything.

American Eagle jeans are ugly. In multiple ways.

A couple of photographs from my recent writing residency in Costa Rica. I saw a baby sloth! Thank you #AtmospherePress.

Son: Why is there goo in the middle of this muffin you baked? Me: That's fruit. Son: You went too far.

What is happening to the press in this country is really really scary.

Rise like Lions after slumber In unvanquishable number, Shake your chains to earth like dew Which in sleep had fallen on you – Ye are many – they are few. Percy Bysshe Shelley

The problem with getting caught up on your emails is then everybody emails you back and you’re behind again.

No offense to these writers, but why are we revisiting this again? Surely there is other writer drama the NYTimes could cover.

Freelancing writers, this is gold: docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Not. Celebrating.

For @altajournal.bsky.social, I wrote about Langston Hughes's time in Carmel, California in 1933. As a Communist and a black man, he became the target of Conservative aggression and violence. So he wrote his short story collection The Ways of White Folks: www.altaonline.com/books/poetry...

I get so offended and furious when I encounter an "article" written by AI. And it never allows comments, so I can't even complain to the abomination for existing.

Our new 3D printer sounds exactly like when my chickens would beg me for food and I keep having to remind myself that I haven't had chickens for years.

Sometimes I worry about Paul Simon dying.

RIP Brian Wilson. Truly sad about this one.