“[A] lovely surprise… It reminded me a great deal of Commonwealth… The narrative moves quickly through time, sometimes jumping nearly a decade forward, and still feels well paced. I really enjoyed this one, and will be thinking of these vivid characters for some time.” Well, here we go with another comparison to Ann Patchett’s…(Read More)
“Their new blended family is as much Americana as apple pie and Coke, shifting, changing and transforming through the decades as Barbara, her children, and her grandchildren create a legacy from the life and also the death of Michael Gannon.” Book critic Adriana Delgado had an original interpretation of Shining Sea and asked original, piercing…(Read More)
There’s nothing like doing an interview with an incredibly engaged, enthusiastic reviewer. Shining Sea’s working title was An American Family, and I’ve always felt the tale was universal–but some of the similarities between the story and interviewer Michelle Marie Dunton’s own life were uncanny. I may appear a little drained…(Read More)
“In the year between its hardcover and paperback releases, I did the required work of promoting the novel, wrote a number of short and long-form nonfiction articles and op-eds, and began researching and making notes for a new novel. “I also read like a coyote loose among sheep…” When I’m deep in…(Read More)
When I’m deep in the first draft of writing a new novel, I don’t typically read other authors’ fiction for pleasure. What about other novelists? Do they? And has becoming a novelist interfered with their fiction-reading pleasure? I investigated. “I read like a coyote loose among sheep…” To read the rest in…(Read More)
California!
by
From September 16 through October 4, I’ll bring Shining Sea home to California–home because that’s where the story opens and returns, and where Barbara Gannon and her five children all have grown up. San Diego, Berkeley, Sausalito, San Rafael, and Los Angeles… Please check the events page for details, and hope to…(Read More)
Little, Brown is holding a book giveaway on Goodreads, from July 14 to August 7 — thirty copies of the paperback edition of Shining Sea are up for grabs! Free to enter… what’s to lose? To read more and try your luck, go here…(Read More)
“A man-made rill lined with local river stones flows between the grasses, opening into an eye-shaped pond that both looks up at the clouds and reflects them, before continuing on its little way.” I wrote about a private garden on a grand hidden estates outside Geneva, Switzerland, redesigned by landscape design firm Wirtz…(Read More)
“To me, freedom is being able to choose a career path based on vocation rather than the fear of ending up without medical insurance.” For my op-ed in USA Today on being a writer, being an expat, endometriosis, and universal healthcare, please look here…(Read More)
“To me, freedom is being able to choose a career path based on vocation rather than the fear of ending up without medical insurance.” For my op-ed in USA Today on being a writer, being an expat, endometriosis, and universal healthcare, please look here…(Read More)
