Articles
“Eyes Filled with Starlight: The Story Girl,” Journal of L.M. Montgomery Studies. I write about my admiration of Sara Stanley, the story girl in L.M. Montgomery’s The Story Girl, and her extraordinary storytelling abilities; as her cousin, the book’s narrator put it, “If voices had color, hers would have been like a rainbow.” L.M. Montgomery, beloved children’s book author, is best known for Anne of Green Gables.
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“Cat Therapist,” a New Yorker “Talk of the Town” story about a woman who could get inside the heads of cats; later reprinted in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Dutch magazine Avenue, and in The Big New Yorker Book of Cats.
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“Notes and Comment,” in The New Yorker Magazine, about how I once actually saw a butterfly in a New York City subway car. There’s a scene in the movie You’ve Got Mail that recreates this moment.
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My review of In the Middle of the Night by Robert Cormier and From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun by Jacqueline Woodson for The New York Times Sunday Book Review. Classics by two of the best writers ever.
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“Ray Harryhausen: An Appreciation,” Huffington Post. The master of stop-motion animation, who was inspired by King Kong, gets a big dose of fangirling from me.
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“What I’ve Learned About Eating Disorders and Teenage Boys,” Huffington Post. How I came to understand the “anorexic voice” and the horrific damage it can do.
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“Why Becoming a Writer is One of the Best Books for Writers,” Cultured Vultures. This 1934 book by Dorothea Brande brilliantly talks about the “writing self” and the “editing self”—and how they should never get in each other’s way.
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“My Definition of Crazy,” Teen Librarian Toolbox, School Library Journal. What I thought “crazy” meant when I was a kid and how I see it now.
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Barnes & Noble Open Mic, B&N Reads. I tell the story of how my father once left me alone on the subway—and how that sparked a lifelong interest in science fiction.
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“Working in a Vet’s Office,” The Unofficial Addiction Book Fan Club. Did you know a red star on your pet’s record might secretly mean “bad dog” or “bad cat”? It’s one of the behind-the-scenes things I learned while working in a vet’s office. (My cat had two red stars.)
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