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A boy and a book in Columbia

Here is Juan Carlos. a boy in Columbia who is reading the Spanish edition of Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend. His mother was kind enough to write to me about how much he loves the book and send me this photo.  Yes, this is the best part about being a writer.  I’m working on my…

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Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend fan art

Illustration of Budo, Max, and Graham from Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend, drawn by Stephanie at Manchester High School during a recent visit to talk about my Nutmeg Award nominated novel 

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Pulling back the curtain on the translation process

I’ve been fortunate enough to have my novels translated and published in more than 25 countries around the world. Just this week I heard from readers in Mexico, France, Brazil, and Australia, including two students who are reading Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend in school and one woman who strongly believes that Something Missing must be…

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Great first sentences (and an analysis of the first sentences of my own novels)

I have no definitive favorite first line of a novel, though I am partial to the first line of Slaughterhouse Five: “All this happened, more or less.” Also, Fahrenheit 451:  “It was a pleasure to burn.” Of all my books, I like the first sentence of Chicken Shack, my unpublished novel that will hopefully see…

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Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend fan art

There is nothing more humbling and thrilling than receiving fan art from a reader. I’ve received quite a bit over the years and seen even more on social media and the Internet.  Since Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend has been nominated for a Nutmeg Award, the amount of fan art related to this book has…

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The bravest

One of the most quoted lines from Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend is this: “You have to be the bravest person in the world to go out every day, being yourself when no one likes who you are.”  I’m so glad that so many readers have become attached to this sentences, because it is one…

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A real life person signs my books as his fictional self, which sounds weird and is admittedly a little weird.

I have a habit of including real people in my fictional stories. If you’ve read Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend, you might know that Mrs. Gosk is a real person. She was my colleague for 18 years until last year when she terribly, tragically retired. If you have the audio version of that book, you…

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Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend is a Nutmeg nominee!

Thrilled and honored to have Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend nominated for a Nutmeg Award. After 18 years of reading and recommending Nutmeg nominees to my students, seeing my novel on the list is indescribable.

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A very special chair and a recommendation to librarians everywhere

I visited the Townsend Library in Massachusetts this week. I spoke to some lovely people about my path to becoming a writer, ordered them to go home and write, answered some interesting questions about my books, teaching, and the writing process, and then listened in as a book club discussed The Perfect Comeback of Caroline…

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Connor the Unicorn is missing. It’s freakin’ annoying.

My daughter has a whole host of imaginary friends, who she calls “pretend friends.” We hear about them a lot less than we did a couple years ago, but they are still around, and from time to time, we will hear her talking to them.  Audrey. Elizabeth. Anna. The list goes on and on.  Most…

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