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Fresh Voices 2010

I’ve spent the last two days in Chester, Vermont, at Misty Valley Books Fresh Voices 2010, a remarkable weekend-long event that showcases new authors to the community. Lynne and Bill Reed, owners of the bookstore, have run this event for years and have done an amazing job bringing authors and the public together for a…

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Revelation

I just realized that my cat, Owen, meows with question marks. Meow? Meow? Every time it’s a question. No wonder I find it so annoying.

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On our way to Misty Valley Books!

This weekend, my wife and I will travel to Chester, Vermont, leaving our one-year-old daughter behind for the first time. I am appearing with five other first-time novelists at a two-day New Voices event sponsored by Misty Valley Books. Clara will be staying with her grandparents for the weekend. While Elysha and I are thrilled…

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What I have to say

Toby Lichtig writes in The Guardian about how all writers repeat themselves. That is, they seem to return to the same themes again and again. When I wrote Something Missing, I had no idea what I was doing. No idea what I was trying to communicate other than Martin’s story. I just allowed the character…

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What’s an author to do?

I was in the gym last week, running nowhere on a treadmill when I noticed that the woman beside me was reading Something Missing. I was thrilled— one of the first discoveries of my book in the wild. But just as quickly as the adrenaline shot through my body, I was stuck. What to do?…

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How to save the independent bookstore: Part 1

Since publishing my first book last year, I have had the pleasure of getting to know many independent booksellers, and my appreciation and respect for the independent bookstore has only grown. These stores are owned and staffed by people who love books and are willing to spend significant portions of their lives reading, ordering, stocking…

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You just can’t throw away a man’s crock pot. Can you?

WIFE: Does anyone local want a perfectly good but sort of old-school crock pot? It works totally fine but was given to my husband by someone I really don’t like, and I can’t enjoy a meal made in that thing. ME:  My wife has systematically eliminated everything I initially contributed to our household. The crock…

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Apologies for being so nice

I recently posted about my wife’s many amazing qualities on the blog that I write to our daughter. I did not do so because I was currying favor. I simply wanted our daughter to know what a remarkable her mother is. This evening, my wife chose to distort the fabric of time, thus plunging me…

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Siblings or Dating?

I received a decanter at a recent Yankee swap. Apparently, it is used to keep water at the one’s bedside. Everyone at the party over fifty years of age identified it immediately. No one under fifty had a clue what it was. For a while, I had my hands on the gift I had brought…

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