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The Great Gatsby

Reading It Again

To be sure, it was only a coin­ci­dence, but the week of March 7th — the week of the recent finan­cial chaos — was also the week that marked the one-hun­dredth anniver­sary of the pub­li­ca­tion of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.

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The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

When Short is Long

My own def­i­n­i­tion of a novel­la is that it is a nov­el that you can read — in its entire­ty — in three or four hours.

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Pinkerton's National Detective Agency logo

Fossil Phrases

Our lan­guage is full of what I call “fos­sil phras­es,” terms we still use that are based on things or acts from the past. After read­ing, read­er, you are invit­ed to add your own fos­sil phrase in the blog comments.

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True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle

Options

Over the years, a num­ber of my books have been optioned for movies. What does “optioned” mean?

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Lost in the Empire City Avi

Story behind the Story #74: Lost in the Empire City

In all the cur­rent polit­i­cal debates about immi­gra­tion, it is some­times for­got­ten, that unless you are con­nect­ed to Native Peo­ple, we are ALL immi­grants or descend­ed from immi­grants, peo­ple in search of a bet­ter life.

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Ragweed and Poppy back cover

Blurbs

BLURB: “A short lauda­to­ry phrase — or even a word — that prais­es a piece of cre­ative work.” 

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Edgar Award Icon

When Nominated for an Edgar Award

In 1975, to my great sur­prise, No More Mag­ic was nom­i­nat­ed for the “Best Juve­nile Mys­tery of the Year,” by the Mys­tery Writ­ers of Amer­i­ca. Back then, new to the world of children’s books, I had nev­er heard of the award or the organization.

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Tales of Wonder by James Gilroy

Tales of Wonder

To my eyes, Tales of Won­der by James Gilroy is a won­der­ful work of art, bril­liant­ly ani­mat­ed with life. In the style of the time, it con­tains a wealth of infor­ma­tion — almost a narrative.

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