Where SWEET SALT AIR came from

Most of my books are inspired by things I read about in the newspaper. The inspiration for Sweet Salt Air was much more personal.  I have three sons, all of whom have recently had children, and when each of those babies was born, its umbilical cord blood was harvested, frozen, and stored. The premise is…

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Are you healthier eating organic?

Since one of the protagonists in Sweet Salt Air (my coming book) is a die-hard locavore, I was naturally interested in this.  Not that a locavore necessarily eats organic.  By definition, a locavore buys and eats food that is locally produced – food produced by local farmers and sold in local markets – but since…

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How to control food cravings

I asked you all about food cravings in yesterday’s SPEEDY BD SURVEY, and there were some really interesting replies.  The most frequent?  Chocolate. So, let’s talk about food cravings.  Do you get them?  I do.  There are times when I am desperate for a fried egg on buttered toast.  Or a sizzling steak.  Or yes,…

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I believe! I believe!

I’m a fiction person, which isn’t to say I don’t read the newspaper or watch the evening news, but simply that my entertainment of choice involves pretend.  Add to that magical elements that sometimes creep into my own work, like the coyotes in Escape, the wishes in Three Wishes, and the herbs in Sweet Salt…

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Fiddleheads!

They’re back!  DH and I were strolling through Whole Foods the other night when I spotted a precious sign.  Fiddlehead Ferns, it read – and there they were, packed in a bin with tiny ice chips to keep them crisp. For the uninitiated, fiddleheads are the immature, unopened fronds of a fern that, when harvested…

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When characters are name-callers

Here’s another thought for those of you who are interested in the kinds of things a writer has to consider. In a single stretch of dialogue, how often should the characters call each other by name?  I’ve been hypersensitive about this lately, because I just read another book that, IMHO, did it very wrong. Here’s…

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Shopping for the holidays

I’m not thinking about Christmas catalogues, free shipping offers or Black Friday hours.  I’m still on Thanksgiving, and it has to do with food.  I’ve been poring through cookbooks, clipping recipes from the paper, and making lists.  The troops are descending next Wednesday morning, and they’re all staying here, so Thanksgiving dinner isn’t the only…

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Naming the baby

A book title either hits me, or it doesn’t.  When it doesn’t, I defer to my publisher.  After all, a title is a marketing tool, and they’re the marketing experts.  Of my last five books, from FAMILY TREE to the present, the only one I came up with myself was ESCAPE, but that was a…

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Barbara Delinsky blogs again … and the plot thickens

I’m back! My energy has finally returned, and no wonder. I took the whole summer off – I mean, did zero writing. This was possible, of course, because I’m at the plotting stage of my next book, which entails more thinking than writing. And I did think. My new characters have been gestating since June,…

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