Holly Robinson

I am not a gushy sort of person when it comes to celebrities, nor am I particularly political. So, when I heard that President Obama was going to speak during our daughter's graduation from Barnard College last week, I was less than thrilled.

"Think of the security," I said...

When I received my latest issue of Poets and Writers Magazine, I did what I always do: I put it in a special place on the nightstand, where I could devour it after finishing work, dinner, dishes, and putting my youngest son to bed. I've been subscribing to this magazine...

No matter how long you've been writing, you've probably experienced that panic-induced paralysis known as writer's block. Common causes are a recent rejection, a good friend's sudden literary success, and the certainty that whatever you're writing is absolute crap.

So what do you do? The obvious answer is to...

My friend Melanie finally lured me into joining Twitter Nation by bribing me with scones and tea.

"It's really easy, and it's great once you get the hang of it," she said as we buttered scones.

"Come on. I'll show you how to set up an account."

"Next,...

Many of my friends have children who are getting their college acceptance letters -- or rejections -- this month. This means that I'm doing a lot of cheering -- and consoling.

The cheering is easy. We all love to see those nice, fat college acceptance envelopes in the mail,...

Nine years ago, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. This wasn't the "do something or die" kind of cancer that my friends Rachel and Kim went through last year. It wasn't even the "lump the size of a grapefruit" breast cancer that my mom had removed after getting her first...

When I was in first grade, I had an art teacher who shamed me into crying in front of the entire classroom.

She had given us an easy assignment. Handing out blocks of wood, she asked us to draw faces on them. I loved art, and...

I never meant to adopt two cats instead of one, much less to fall in love with a cat that thinks he's a dog. But sometimes life surprises you. Or, in cat terms, sometimes life is a ball of yarn that unwinds into unexpected pleasures.

It all began when I...

Now that I've got feet in both camps, I have a unique perspective on the good, the bad and the mysterious truths about book marketing. My memoir, The Gerbil Farmer's Daughter, was published by Random House. I leaped into the indie world when I self-published my first novel, Sleeping...

When my agent called a few weeks ago to say that an editor at Penguin wanted to buy my new novel, The Wishing Hill, I literally had to lie down. Otherwise, I might have fallen out of my chair. After all, I've been waiting for this call for 25...

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine asked if I'd like to participate in his "Books, Authors, and Wine Tasting" event. I had just published my novel Sleeping Tigers, so I said yes. I wasn't expecting to sell any books, really -- I hadn't started marketing the novel yet,...

I was eating lunch when I got a text from my youngest son today. "95 on Spanish quiz!" he wrote.

Ironically, at that very moment I was catching up on the New York Times, where I stumbled upon the Jan. 28 article, "Ritalin Gone Wrong" by L....

My daughter called me last night to celebrate her news. "I got the job!" she said. "I'm going to be decorating cupcakes!"

I cheered. My daughter earned an honors degree in Natural Resources from a major university this past May. This is the happiest I've heard her sound in...

I gave myself a book for my birthday this year: my own novel.

It's still tough to admit that I'm self-published, despite the fact that the publishing world is now a Wild West of rogue indie presses and bowlegged cocky ebook publishers firing their Twitterfeeds in every direction.

Perhaps...

McDuff, my Cairn terrier, looks more like a pot-bellied pig every day. His swollen abdomen is low-slung and his short legs bow out at the elbows -- symptoms of Cushing's Disease. Recently we had to put up a baby gate to keep him from going upstairs; the last time McDuff...

Recently, I was nosing around a local bookstore in search of a perfect Christmas read for my father-in-law. He's a history buff; last year I gave him the stellar book Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. He's still raving about it. What can I possibly give him this year to top that?

My husband gave me a Kindle for my birthday. (Forgive him, O Indie booksellers. He is an engineer who knows not what he does.)

At first I protested. As a writer, avid reader, and patron of indie bookstores with cats curled on floral armchairs, what did...

You know that panicky feeling you get when you drop your briefcase or purse and everything spills out in public? That's how I used to feel every day: embarrassed, furious and anxious because I couldn't keep up with my life.

The last straw may have been my new gym membership....

In the book world, you can easily spot novels designed to attract women by the body parts and backsides on their covers.

Don't believe me? Go to Amazon and browse the postage stamp images for anything that falls into the category of women's contemporary fiction, and you'll see what...

Yesterday, my mother asked what I was working on.

"Oh, I finished copy editing that memoir and now I'm writing a marketing brochure," I said.

She shook her head. "And to think that your father and I used to worry about you."

It's true: they did...