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Four books in two months has been challenging, and this isn’t helping.

I’m working like hell to wrap up my first middle grade novel. It should be done in a day or two. I’m excited about the idea of writing a book aimed at the students I teach. Although Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend and The Perfect Comeback of Caroline Jacobs crossed over into the YA market, this…

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The Weird Book Room: The last place I want my books to end up

I sometimes ponder the fate of my books.  Will anyone read them a hundred years from now? Will libraries still have them on their shelves? Will they even exist?  One of my friends recently suggested that my books are merely an attempt to negate my mortality and live forever. This is not true, of course. Books aren’t…

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An important (and painful) lesson about the people closest to me and the things I write

One of my wife’s friends told me yesterday that she reads this blog daily and feels like she has an oddly intimate relationship with me as a result. Then she said that there have been times when she has told my wife that she loved something I wrote on my blog, only to discover that…

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I won’t be reading my novel to my children. For a damn good reason.

My son asked me to read my novel, Unexpectedly, Milo, to him. “Too long,” I told him. “No pictures. Let’s find something else.” It also has an awkward and explicit sex scene in it (which I didn’t bother to mention), so I think he’ll be reading that one on his own some day.

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It’s easy to criticize what people do. It’s often what people don’t do that matters more, yet these inactions are often ignored. So leave me alone, you inactive, moronic toadstools.

I was recently sitting at my desk in my classroom, drinking a Diet Coke while correcting papers. A colleague walked in, and as we wrapped up our conversation, she commented on the soda that I was drinking. “You know, Diet Coke really isn’t good for you. You drink way too much. You should think about…

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30 lessons learned from six years of parenting

My daughter celebrated her sixth birthday on Sunday. When she turned two years-old, I posted a list of lessons learned from two years of parenting. I updated that list when she turned four. In truth, I raised a step-daughter for ten years as well, so I’ve been a parent a lot longer than just six…

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This author found a way to sell books with sticks and leaves and a little bit of twine.

Last weekend I took my children to Winding Trails in Farmington, Connecticut, to a Fairy House Tour. I had never heard of such a thing and had no idea what to expect. I wasn’t expecting much, to be honest. But it was brilliant. Based upon author Tracy Kane’s Fairy Houses series, local organizations were invited…

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