For Mental Floss, I wrote 10 Juicy Facts About Mary Astor’s Purple Diary, Old Hollywood’s Most Infamous Sex Scandal. This scandal was a huge inspiration for my novel, Right Back Where We Started From. Poor Mary Astor was done dirty.
I was invited by Alta Magazine to discuss my article When Mark Twain Canceled Bret Harte on Alta Live. I was joined by Russell Jeung, professor of Asian American studies and one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of…
For Alta Magazine I wrote about cloud seeding. Did you know we already have the ability to increase precipitation in clouds? And that we’ve been doing it since the 1950s? And that the technology was invented by Kurt Vonnegut’s brother?…
I have a new article in Alta Magazine! It’s about the 30 year literary feud between Mark Twain and Bret Harte. 30 years! That Mark Twain could really hold a grudge. Read about it here.
Over at the Los Angeles Review of Books, I wrote about gothic horror, Shirley Jackson, and California Victorians: RIGHT BEFORE SHIRLEY JACKSON began working on her 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House, a postcard depicting a California mansion started…
My book has a book trailer! MARCIA made it for me! She is the best!
So happy to have contributed to The Curious Reader by Mental Floss! It’s full of facts about authors and their books, from Jane Austen to JRR Tolkien. From the publisher: Readers rejoice From Mental Floss, an online destination for more…
For USA Today, I wrote an article about the consequences of hustle culture and its roots in the California Gold Rush. Excerpt: Whether it’s called hustle culture or toxic productivity, workaholism is now mainstream. For the past few years, the…
For Literary Hub, I wrote an essay called All in the Timing: On Publishing a Novel Nine Years After Giving Up on It. It’s the publishing story of my novel, Right Back Where We Started From, which I finished way…
For Mental Floss, I wrote about a juicy 1930s Hollywood scandal involving Mary Astor’s Purple Diaries. It’s one of the first Hollywood sex scandals–plus it inspired part of my novel, Right Back Where We Started From, which starts in 1930s…
Late last year, I went on a quest to see the critically endangered California Condor in the wild. I wrote about the experience for Alta. I’ve always wanted to see a California condor in the wild. It’s on a list…
My neighbors cut down their tree and banished all the birds from our yard. I wrote an essay about it for Entropy. The morning after the neighbors cut down the tree, my yard was quiet. The crows that for the…