Archive for July 2022
Finding Myself Again
On Wednesday, October 22, 2008, I decided to take over what had been, at that time, my husband’s blog. Tim is a fabulous and gifted writer, but he’s not a consistent writer. And in those days, my plan was to “update a blog once a week so that [our] little ‘buckets of sunshine’ [could] be…
Read More#ThrowbackThursdayBookstagram: The Fault in Our Stars
This week’s #ThrowbackThursdayBookstagram features one of my all-time favorite books: THE FAULT IN OUR STARS by John Green. John Green has been one of my go-to authors since my friend Kelsey introduced me to him. In fact, back in April 2012 (a decade ago!), I blogged about my love for John Green and his works.…
Read MoreHard Work Brings Success: An Interview with Dinty W. Moore
For most of 2021 and much of 2022, this author interview series focused on debut authors. My main goal was to support the authors I’d met in various debut groups as we all launched our books. But in thinking about the interview schedule and the purpose of this series, my desire to reach out to…
Read More#ThrowbackThursdayBookstagram: I’ve Got Your Number
This week’s #ThrowbackThursdayBookstagram features I’VE GOT YOUR NUMBER by Sophie Kinsella. I never found Kinsella’s Shopaholic series to my liking (unlike just about everyone else on the planet), but this book was a fun, quick read. In fact, readers called it “hilarious,” “engaging,” and a “delightful” read, and I would agree. Kinsella knows how to…
Read MoreMissing Out
Literary journals uphold standards by following a style guide. Literary Mama uses The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) as its guide, though we do have our own in-house style guide for a few items. One of the standards we follow is to italicize book titles. That choice might seem inconsequential to you, but to someone…
Read MoreStronger Together: An Interview with Barbara Newman
This series of author interviews allows me to encounter so many people, some of whom I’d love to catch up with in real life. Author Barbara Newman is one of those people. She contacted me last fall after reading Keema Waterfield’s interview, and her slot has finally arrived! And I’m so glad it did because…
Read More#ThrowbackThursdayBookstagram: The Book Thief
It’s the second Thursday in July and time for #ThrowbackThursdayBookstagram! This week features THE BOOK THIEF by Marcus Zusak. This book launched in 2006 to critical acclaim, and won multiple awards, including National Jewish Book Award for Children’s and Young Adult Literature (2006), Book Sense Book of the Year Award for Children’s Literature (2007), Sydney…
Read MoreOn the Brink of Life Changes: An Interview with Carolyn Clarke
I first crossed paths with author Carolyn Clarke when I found her website, HenLit Central, which is both informative and entertaining for readers and authors alike. When I learned that her own book would be published, I knew I wanted to feature her in this series. Her debut novel, And Then There’s Margaret, is slated…
Read MoreBirthday Learning, III
Dear Melina, Maybe you don’t know this, but a certain person we both know thinks of me as a parenting expert. I always shrug that thought away—it holds way too much responsibility for one person—but I understand what she means. With four kids in the mix, I’ve experienced many scenarios and draw from those to…
Read More#ThrowbackThursdayBookstagram: Wicked
Welcome back to #ThrowbackThursdayBookstagram! This week features WICKED by Gregory Maguire. This book launched in 1995, and it currently has 585,404 ratings (and 25,303 reviews) on Goodreads. That’s pretty impressive. I didn’t read the book in 1995. No, it wasn’t until after my youngest was born (and well after Wicked came to Broadway) that I…
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