It's not glamorous or spacious at all (and half the time, it ends up being the "store room" for diapers, laundry detergent, and roles of toilet paper---lovely, I know---and anything else we can't find a place for after a big trip to Costco), but one

Last weekend, we drove six hours down south to the Oregon Coast to stay at Jason's parent's beach home, and had fun with the kids, a week before I had a sunbed tanning session so when we actually went to the beach you can just

I realized recently that in my stories I write about, well, weeds! There are wild wood violets in The Violets of March, wild-growing hibiscus on the shores of Bora-Bora in The Bungalow, and blackberry vines in my third novel. So, I like weeds! And, I

My pal Elise Allen, author of the sparkling new young adult novel, Populazzi (pick up your copy!), snapped this photo of my novel at Vroman's in Los Angeles (Southern California's largest and oldest independent bookstore), where The Violets of March appears on a shelf of

How cute is this address stamp?! I just ordered it from this Etsy shop (with my own name and address, of course!), and can't wait to stamp it onto my envelopes!

In the last few months, I've gotten a ton of requests for bookplates for The Violets of March, so I had to figure out, a.) what is a book plate?, and b.) where does a new author find said bookplates, and c.) what does one

Thank you to everyone who entered my contests in the last week, and an especially big thanks to Jodi Picoult for sharing my novel with her readers. (If you haven't checked out Jodi's brand new Facebook page---please do!) I recieved a flood of entries (about

This week, my book debuts in Germany! The Violets of March is called (translated) "Somewhere, Forever" in German. I love the romantic cover and that dreamy bicycle and red scarf! If you have a chance to read the book in German, please let me know

Happy 10th anniversary, J.

So pretty with the lovely Kristin Hannah quote, isn't it?! Makes me want to be in the Tahitian islands right now. And the exciting news: The Bungalow's release date has been moved up from March 27, to December 27! So, you can now pre-order the