I've just finished my next collection, Possible Side Effects, and I'm now working on a collection of holiday stories as well as a memoir about my relationship with my father.

This is what you should know about losing someone you love. They do not travel alone. You go with them.

Red hair is great. It's rare, and therefore superior.

My mother is from Cairo, Georgia. This makes everything she says sound like it went through a curling iron.

Freshly brainwashed from rehab, I carry the bottle into the bathroom. I hold it up to the light. See the pretty bottle? Isn't it beautiful? Yes, it's beautiful. I unscrew the cap and pour it into the toilet. I flush twice. And then I think, why did I flush twice? The answer, is of course, because I truly do know myself. I cannot be sure I won't attempt to drink from the toilet, like a dog.

In some ways, blogging is like drinking - it gives a person permission to be a total asshole.

Even when we lose an arm or a leg, there's not less of us but more. Human experience weighs more than human tissue.