I think I'm like most novelists in that my books have gotten farther and farther away from autobiography the longer I've been writing them.

Maybe I had three children in the first place so I wouldn't ever have to play board games. In my religion, martyrs die.

Writing for UrbanMoms has awarded me a multitude of amazing opportunities. I have traveled to new places; alone and with my family. I have discovered new products, new books, new trends and new restaurants, and been able to share them with my readers. I've met other wonderful writers and many incredible celebrities.

part of the problem with a war on poverty today is that many Americans have decided that being poor is a character defect, not an economic condition.

I was very driven, very focused, very ambitious. I mean, when I look back on myself in my 20s, part of me just cringes.

I will never understand people who think that the way to show their righteous opposition to sexual freedom is to write letters full of filthy words.

Reading has always been life unwrapped to me, a way of understanding the world and understanding myself through both the unknown and the everyday. If being a parent consists often of passing along chunks of ourselves to unwitting-often unwilling-recipients, then books are, for me, one of the simplest and most sure-fire ways of doing that.