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Simon & Schuster authors speak out on the topics that inspire them

A gossip queen dissecting politics? A political pundit musing about sports? A romance novelist waxing poetic on music? You read it here first... see what your favorite literary personalities have to say about life beyond books.

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2011 Blizzard Strikes Personal Chord for Me

By Molly Harper - February 8, 2011

An ice storm. Stranded in a strange, isolated place without power. Children with an unsettling ability to win staring contests. This is how horror movies start. Watching the news coverage as cities across the Midwest are pelted by the much-touted historic blizzard, I’m having strange sympathy pangs. In January 2009, an ice storm ripped through Kentucky, taking out power and...

In which I pull back the curtain...

By Molly Harper - February 8, 2011

And reveal that the Wizard is just a guy in a hot air balloon. I spoke to a group of high school students on Thursday about writing and getting published. They were a great group, engaged, thoughtful, asking great questions. It was very cool as one of my former English teachers was there and came in to tell the kids that even in high school, she and the other English teachers...

Cinderella goes to the ball – and doesn’t fall over, for once

By Hester Browne - February 3, 2011

So! The reeling ball in the stately home! And the question on everyone’s lips: did the vintage eBay bargain skirt fit in the end? Well, I’m happy to say that yes, it did. Even if Anna the fearsome seamstress took me at my holding-my-breath-in word, and sewed the new buttons at the hopeful spot I insisted my new...

Why we Read; an Interview with Philipp Meyer

By Cara Hoffman - February 3, 2011

When I first read Philipp Meyer’s American Rust I was struck by the poetry of it and exhilarated by the issues the author brought to light. It was the first novel I’d read by a contemporary that excited my sensibilities for language as well as meaning. It’s a courageous and deeply sensitive piece of fiction and to me it heralded the beginning of a new kind of writing and...

Why We Read: An Interview with Philipp Meyer

By Cara Hoffman - February 2, 2011

When I first read Philipp Meyer’s American Rust I was struck by the poetry of it and exhilarated by the issues the author brought to light. It was the first novel I’d read by a contemporary that excited my sensibilities for language as well as meaning. It’s a courageous and deeply sensitive piece of fiction and to me it heralded the beginning of a new kind of writing and...

Bad Advice from Kurt Vonnegut

By Cara Hoffman - January 27, 2011

Readers of my blog (and friends) will know my mother as the person whose ideas about parenting included reading booze-drenched modernist classics to me when I was eleven. So, it will not come as a surprise to anyone that when I was a few years older than that, she dropped me off at a Kurt Vonnegut reading while she went to a lecture in another part of town. I was a big...

Why I DON'T write historical fiction

By Deborah Raney - January 24, 2011

While I love to read historical novels, I've only written one, a novella. (Had it been a full-length historical, I'd still be asking for extensions on my deadline!) The only thing that experience accomplished was to convince me I'd best stick to writing contemporary. Why? Oh, let me count the ways... My first sentence of my first draft of "Circle of Blessings"––set in 1864...

FAQ for AND ONE LAST THING

By Molly Harper - January 21, 2011

I've had several people submit the same sort of questions after finishing AND ONE LAST THING, so I thought I'd save some time and answer them here. Q: SO WHAT DID YOUR HUSBAND DO TO YOU TO MAKE YOU WRITE A REVENGE FANTASY ABOUT A WOMAN WHO STRIKES BACK AT HER CHEATING HUSBAND AND HIS SECRETARY? A: Actually, my husband, David, is pretty great. In fact, his general awesomeness...

Playlist for HOW TO FLIRT WITH A NAKED WEREWOLF

By Molly Harper - January 21, 2011

To help you get in the mood for HOW TO FLIRT WITH A NAKED WEREWOLF, I'm going to post the playlist I used while I was writing it. To remind you of the plot: Even in Grundy, Alaska, it’s unusual to find a naked guy with a bear trap clamped to his ankle on your porch. But when said guy turns into a wolf, recent southern transplant Mo Wenstein has no difficulty identifying the...

Arson, Baby Seats and Dinner for Two

By Cara Hoffman - January 19, 2011

I was putting a picture of me and E. into a new frame recently when I took the backing off and found a foodstamp. The old-school paper kind, printed with the words "food coupon." I suspect I put it there to remind myself of something. It made me happy to see it—not because my kid is all grown up and we don’t need foodstamps anymore—or because it’s a symbol of struggle...

The Boys from County Hell

By Cara Hoffman - January 19, 2011

Recently a friend who’s been reading my blog asked why I only write about the things I think and not about things I do or stories about my life. It’s a good question. And while the obvious answer is that I’m trying to maintain some privacy, the bigger picture is that it’s not easy to write about the people you love. But since it keeps coming up, I have two stories for...

Oh, I would not Give you False Hope

By Cara Hoffman - January 19, 2011

I get asked a lot of parenting questions these days and questions about being a single mother. I think this is partly because many of my friends and peers are having their first kids or raising toddlers, while my son is nearly grown—a brainy, wiseass musician entering college who is sweet enough to send me things like youtube videos of Mr. T singing “I pity the fool who...

Something to Say

By Cara Hoffman - January 19, 2011

When I was a child my favorite story was a piece by James Thurber that my mother used to read to me. It was called “Something to Say” and it was about an alcoholic writer named Elliot Vereker, an eccentric whose genius was confirmed by the number of terrible things he did; freeloading on friends, crashing parties, breaking light bulbs on the ground because he liked the sound...

Cinderella Goes on a Diet

By Hester Browne - January 17, 2011

I’m going to a ball at the end of this month. A proper, full-on, candlelight and dancing, men in white tie and tails, ladies in evening gloves, ball with reeling till 3am, champagne and dance cards. It’s in Scotland, and it offers a whole novel’s worth of quality romantic atmosphere (see, Swept off her Feet, March onwards). It’s so traditional that black tie for men...

Amaryllis in Blueberry

By Christina Meldrum - January 7, 2011

I'm very excited to share the trailer for my new book AMARYLLIS IN BLUEBERRY which will be released on February 8, 2011. http://youtu.be/2JsRzqIzVZY

Online Affairs: AKA Facebook Affairs

By Joe Beam - January 6, 2011

Yesterday I talked with another wife emotionally involved with an old boyfriend she bumped into online on Facebook. No surprise there. Every month couples enroll in our workshop for marriages in crisis because one of them – usually the wife – became emotionally and/or physically enmeshed with someone found on one of the social networking sites. Before you lecture me about...

In praise of Snooki

By Adam Bertocci - January 5, 2011

“A cheap literature, hideous and ignoble of aspect, like the tawdry novels which flare in the bookshelves of our railway stations, and which seem designed... for people with a low standard of life.” -- Matthew Arnold, 1822-1888 Okay, I'll admit it: I've made a couple of wisecracks, too. "I've never been so proud to be part of the Simon & Schuster family," I joshed,...

By Riku Campo - January 4, 2011

I love the Holiday Season, and who doesn't: it is the perfect time to sit down/lay down and relax...and read some books that maybe you never had time to finish to the end.It is important to remember to have some time to yourself, too..In this very fastgoing world we often forget to give some quality time to ourselves and that's why the Holiday Season is for: to let yourself to...

Feng Shui in the bathroom cabinet...yes!

By Riku Campo - January 4, 2011

Why not to start the year of 2011 to arrange your bathroom cabinet and really check out what skin care and makeup products you need and which ones should be in the garbage...any products that are older than 18 months you should throw away. This is a real feng shui for your bathroom cabinets! You have no idea how many old shampoo bottles, face creams, lipsticks and mascaras...

Feng Shui in the bathroom cabinet...yes!

By Riku Campo - January 4, 2011

Why not to start the year of 2011 to arrange your bathroom cabinet and really check out what skin care and makeup products you need and which ones should be in the garbage...any products that are older than 18 months you should throw away. This is a real feng shui for your bathroom cabinets! You have no idea how many old shampoo bottles, face creams, lipsticks and mascaras...

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