I’m a fiction writer but you haven’t heard of me. It’s okay. I’m working on it. I am also the mom of two boys and I have a husband. I think all three of them are great but I am not especially patient and sometimes I yell at them, especially when they are not being tidy. We had a lovely cat but she died in 2008 and we are never getting another pet. I read as much as I possibly can, which isn’t nearly as much as I used to. I only like to read fiction, and as a result I am often ill-informed about what is actually happening in the world and also about what is history versus what is made up. My older son is in first grade and this year he’s fallen in love with reading. Watching him devour books is among the most rewarding things I have experienced. [He’s now in third grade and he still loves reading and recently demanded more books about dragons.]

I write while my younger son, who is four, is at preschool three days a week. It used to be just in the mornings, but I received grants this year so I’ve been signing him up to stay until three o’clock with wild abandon. I’ve also been able to turn down freelance work. This means that from mid-September to early June, excluding school vacations and holidays and sickness, I can write for about thirteen hours a week. Compared to the years when I was home with an infant and a toddler wondering if I would ever write again, this feels like a vast expanse of time. But I think it’s also scarce enough that after I drop my son off, I walk past the dirty kitchen and the laundry scattered all over the floor, sit down at my desk, and get to work. This is not a skill I’ve always had. [He is now almost six and started Kindergarten. The award money was tremendously helpful and is all the way gone, but Kindergarten. Oh my goodness.]

I blog mostly about my work-in-progress, and by extension, music. If I read a good book, I’ll let you know. I took up running in 2012 and I talk about what a positive effect it has had on my life insufferably, so that might happen. I have lost zero pounds from all this running, so there will be no diet tips. I will also post about books and writing. I mommy blog sometimes, but usually at mommyish.com. [I haven’t done this in a while. Now I blog about reading and writing for Ploughshares and I like it so much, except for the deadlines.] Someday I might make muffins and if they turn out well I’ll share the recipe. They will probably have bran in them. I’m not going to learn how to style food, so they’ll probably look unappetizing. [I never remember to document my muffins. This is probably for the best.] Sometimes I spend an insane amount of time researching which product to buy and if I think it will save someone else time, I’ll share the knowledge, because I love to give overly solicitous advice. [I do highly recommend this hand vac but I guess I’m unlikely to blog about it.

2024 Update: 

The above bio is both hilariously out of date and still deadly accurate. My kids are now 13 and 16. The part about dragons is still true. My running life now consists of me deciding every couple of weeks or so to do the Couch to 5K program again. This means I do the same run/walk from week three every time, and then forget about it for a couple of weeks, when I repeat the same week three run/walk. It’s very handy because now I live in the future and a woman in my watch tells me when to run and when to walk. I’ve returned to regular lap swimming for the first time since high school. It is by far my most natural, calming, and beloved form of exercise. In cooking news, I bought a Vitamix a few months ago and there’s nothing I won’t blend into a silky puree.

And I’ve worked at the wonderful Hillside Writing since 2016. If you’d like to read a serious bio, you can find it there.