Exciting News! My pre-order campaign launches today! Not only do pre-orders play a key role in a book’s success, but when you pre-order THE BENEFITS OF BEING AN OCTOPUS from Bartleby’s Books, you… 1) Support a fabulous independent bookstore 2) Get a signed, personalized copy 3) Get a pair of super cool octopus tattoos, AND 4) Support… Read more »
Fearless Girls and Fearless Women
Crossing Our Divides, One Honest Word at a Time
My column in the Brattleboro Reformer this month examines the role that honesty plays in our ability to cross divides, whether it’s a class divide, a racial divide, or if it’s about guns, a theme that run through The Benefits of Being an Octopus. I also had the chance to talk with Olga Peters on WKVT-Green Mountain Mornings… Read more »
Girl Power Books
I recently teamed up with independent bookseller Nancy Braus and children’s librarians Lindsay Bellville and Paige Martin to offer a series of book talks featuring great books that have strong girls as main characters. The group of us all have different taste, so it was super… Read more »
Learning the Dynamics of Emotional Abuse
The women I know who are survivors of domestic abuse are seriously fearless and inspiring people. When I began the process of writing The Benefits of Being an Octopus it was so important to me to get that aspect of the story right. That meant that even though I was familiar with the dynamics of emotional abuse… Read more »
Using First Person Accounts to Understand the Realities of the Working Poor
I have long been a believer in the power of first person accounts. My Masters-in-Teaching thesis began by focusing on all the problems of history textbooks and then morphed into a 200-page alternative U.S. History textbook that relied entirely on first person accounts. Not only do first person accounts put regular people smack dab in… Read more »