Writing 101: How to Write Your First Make-Out Scene (In 9 Easy Steps)

In over ten years’ worth of novels, I have written maybe three kissing scenes. (I’ve written more for plays, but that’s kinda cheating, because you just write, “They completely devour each other’s faces with tongue and everything for, like, ten minutes!” and then the actors have to do it. Ha…

10 Things I Learned In 2011 (New Year’s, Part I)

Hooray! You are lucky, because although I’m still sick, I started working on this year-evaluation a long time ago. So it may bear some semblance to being coherent. Also, to all you Christians and secular-celebraters out there: Merry Christmas! To all you Jews: Happy Hannukah! To everyone else: … ‘sup?…

How To Survive an Old-Fashioned Murder Mystery In 10 Easy Steps

I make no guarantees for these newfangled “thrillers” with all their twists and turns and serial killings. But should you ever find yourself in the small British town of Something-Or-Other-By-The-Sea or at an old country estate, and the squire collapses over his tea or the maid stumbles across a body…

In Which PostSecret Meets Judaism, Aladdin, and Oscar Wilde

The concept of PostSecret is simple: individuals from around the world write down their secrets on postcards and send them, anonymously, to Frank Warren, the artist who dreamed up the project. Some are visually arresting; some are just words scrawled on a card; and some are a mix of the…

Sherlock Holmes, Cluzzle, and Reading Artifacts

No, this blog entry isn’t a game of One-of-These-Things-Is-Not-Like-the-Others. Last week, I attended the Reading Artifacts Summer Institute at the Canada Science and Technology Museum. Many thanks to all those who recommended, organized, and participated; I gained some amazing perspectives on the work I do as an aspiring historian. But…