My husband, Jim, converted to Judaism just before our wedding.

The real Mary Poppins got lost when Hollywood turned her into a cream puff.

My six handbooks to Jewish life and lifecycle events mostly followed the trajectory of my adult Jewish life.

There’s something almost adolescent about Whitman’s paean to everything that was and remains good about America.

As a journalist I’m comfortable doing library research, and I did a lot! I had a fellowship at Radcliff for a year which gave me access to the Harvard system.

November is Jewish book month, so Jewish Community Centers all around the country have book fairs where they invite authors and sell books in advance of the holidays.

Until very recently men and women inhabited very separate spheres. There was always interconnection, passion, love. But men and women didn’t hang out at the end of the day and chat about what their day...

Biblical names are hot again.

One of my favorite poets, Neruda, writes close to the bone. Though I know only a little Spanish, I like to compare the Spanish and English lines and see how the translator worked.

Whatever your relationship is to your sacred tradition in the West, you have some relationship to the Bible if only through the names of the characters.

I got nice rejections explaining that historical fiction was a difficult sell. But I kept trying.

Readers have told me how the mother, daughter, sister relationships resonate for them. They connect with the importance of female relationships.

When I turned 40, I wanted to do something different. Fiction offered a different challenge. It uses a different side of the brain.

I have a 10-year track record of writing for the Jewish community.

Right now, I’m Writing song lyrics. Experimenting with a play. Toying with an idea for a documentary. I hope one of these will eventually be launched into the light of day.

I lived through a classic publishing story. My editor was fired a month before the book came out. The editor who took it over already had a full plate. It was never advertised. We didn’t...

Shakespeare in Love… such smart writing of an alternative view of history, and such beautiful acting. Like most Americans, I’m a sucker for the accent.

I love many kinds of music: world music, jazz, classical, pop.

Since 1985, I have written about contemporary Jewish practice and the Jewish community.

I never wanted Mary Poppins to be my nanny. I wanted to be her when I grew up.

The Bible – it’s sort of the other person in the room. There’s this book, the reader, and the Bible.

I tell writers to keep reading, reading, reading. Read widely and deeply. And I tell them not to give up even after getting rejection letters. And only write what you love.

The more I do bookstores, the more people come up to me from church groups. I spoke at Pittsburg State College and had 2 or 3 ministers and book groups from a couple of churches.

I’m not a literary writer. I didn’t go to whatever school it is or have the mentor you need to get reviewed in the New York Times.

The President of the Reform Movement started a literacy project and said everyone should be reading at least four Jewish books a year.