ABOUT ME

I began my career in publishing — first books and then magazines. After leaving my job as the fitness and health editor at Weight Watchers Magazine I worked as a freelance writer and published stories in the pages of Fit Pregnancy, Coastal Living, Southern Living, Cooking Light and other national consumer magazines.

As the magazine industry shrank, I felt a pull to digital content strategy and became a content consultant. I worked with clients big and small, but eventually decided to focus on helping scrappy startups use content to support their ambitious business goals. 

Nearly a decade later, the publishing landscape had evolved again. Longform writing was enjoying a revival and Substack made it possible for me to return to my first professional love: editorial work. I was thrilled by the idea of my words being the product instead of using my words to sell a product like software, so I launched my newsletter,  Skin of Our Teeth in June 2022. Today, I focus on that newsletter and my work as an editor at Cognoscenti, the ideas and opinion page at WBUR (Boston’s NPR station) and the Back Page, which is the opinions and personal essay section of Style Weekly, which is owned by Virginia Public Media.

Proust Questionnaire

It’s hard to get to know someone from a website, but the Proust Questionnaire helps. So, here goes:

1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Sitting in the sun with my husband, drinking a beer. 


2. What is your greatest fear?

Adult children living under my roof.

3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

I’m terribly impatient. Next question. 

4. What is the trait you most deplore in others?

Melodrama.

5. Which living person do you most admire?

Kate Baer. I love that she never gave up on her dream of becoming a writer and that her poetry recognizes and reckons with the ambiguity in being a woman and a mother.

6. What is your greatest extravagance?

Travel. They can’t repossess your memories.

7. What is your current state of mind?

Put upon.

8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

Busyness.

9. On what occasion do you lie?

When it’s too late to change outfits/haircuts/baby names. 

10. What do you most dislike about your appearance?

My short stature. I’m only 5’1”

11. Which living person do you most despise?

Hard pass.

12. What is the quality you most like in a man?

Intelligence.

13. What is the quality you most like in a woman?

Intelligence.

14. Which word or phrase do you most overuse?

The “F” word.

15. What or who is the greatest love of your life?

Matt Cooper. (Unless Bruce Springsteen is reading this.)

16. When and where were you happiest?

The day we had our third child. Our family finally felt complete. I even called my mom from the hospital and said, “Everybody’s here.”

17. Which talent would you most like to have?

Can I name two? I’d love to be able to write fiction and speak German fluently. 

18. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I would make myself taller. It’s not very profound, but it’s honest.

19. What do you consider your greatest achievement?

My marriage. Lifelong commitment is hard work.

20. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?

The secondary parent. 

21. Where would you most like to live?

Manhattan.

22. What is your most treasured possession?

A necklace my parents gave me. The charm on it is the key tag my grandfather used for his locker in medical school during the 1930s. I’m wearing it right now.

23. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

Knowing what the people you love need, but not being able to give it to them. That and being too tired to read at bedtime.

24. What is your favorite occupation?

Novelist.

25. What is your most marked characteristic?

My naturally blond hair. People have spotted me in the nosebleed seats at Madison Square Garden because of it.

26. What do you most value in your friends?

Loyalty. I know who’s got my back. 

27. Who are your favorite writers?

JD Salinger, Jane Smiley, Wallace Stegner, Deborah Garrison, Maggie Smith and Kate Baer. 

28. Who is your hero of fiction?

Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

29. Which historical figure do you most identify with?

Julia Child. I hate cooking, but I’d like to think I’m a passionate late bloomer whose best years are still ahead. Plus she was just super cool. And tall. (See #18.)

30. Who are your heroes in real life?

My parents. Their selfless partnership is awe-inspiring.

31. What are your favorite names?

Ned, Virginia and Gilbert — the names of my children.

32. What is it that you most dislike?

It’s a tie: gated communities and bad grammar.

33. What is your greatest regret?

That I don’t keep a journal.

34. How would you like to die?

Painlessly and with dignity. 

35. What is your motto?

I’m doing the best I can.