Blog
A MADNESS DIPPED IN GRIEF
The first time I shot a gun, I was nine years old. We were visiting my grandparents in the mountains of West Virginia, and my grandfather, an avid hunter and outdoorsman, had taken my brother and me out to the backyard with a commanding view of the majestic...
Are those your knees in my ass or are you just glad to see me?
A funny thing happened on the ride home from Manhattan yesterday. I got weirdly sexually harassed by a man and his overzealous knees. And I almost didn't notice. It was afternoon rush hour. I was overjoyed to have found a seat on the R train, also called the "Rarely"...
A Letter from Muffy Higginbottom
A LETTER FROM MUFFY HIGGINBOTTOM, PRESIDENT OF DELTA SIGMA TAU, ON THE OCCASION OF INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY Dear Sisters, OMG, it’s finally International Women’s Day, y’all! Holla! I know we’ve all been prepping for this day for, like, FOREVER. (I’m looking at you,...
IN SUPPORT OF ELLEN OH
I’ve been largely off social media lately. It’s not unusual for me to go underground for periods of time to deal with work and/or life stuff. But as I was underground this week, I missed Ellen Oh’s very important post on diversity, what it means, what it doesn’t mean,...
We Can Be Heroes
Yesterday morning, I woke in the pre-dawn with the song, "Heroes" inexplicably pinging through my head. All through my shampoo and conditioner, “Heroes.” Blow-dry: “Heroes.” My teenaged son called to me from the hallway. “Mom,” he said using a tone of voice that...
The End of Innocence
Seven years ago, when my son was ten, he asked me to tell him the truth about Santa. It was a hard moment, and I was never quite sure if I'd done the right thing or not. That night seemed to capture all of my complicated feelings about Christmas, and I ended up...
Holiday Letters We’d Like to See
Greetings, Everyone! It’s holiday time in the McAllister-Johnson household and that means it’s time for our yearly catch-up letter. What an eventful year it was here at 2427 Whispering Streams Drive! We’ve got so many “likes” we could practically be a Facebook page!...
An American Refrain
Like many people, I’ve been grappling with making sense of our current political landscape. What to say about the hate speech being spewed by the leading GOP candidate, the anti-immigrant/anti-refugee/anti-Muslim fervor he seems intent on whipping into an ugly...
World AIDS Day 2015
Today, in honor of World AIDS Day, here's a story about my friend Norbert, whom I miss very much. Keep dancing. And keep working toward a cure. For more about World AIDS Day, please go here: http://www.worldaidsday.org/ [wpvideo YvDjJ1v1] Peace, Libba
DEAR FRIENDS
Dear Friends, I’m thrilled to announce that today is the pub day for my sixth novel, WE ARE ALL STRANGERS HERE—a story about a dysfunctional southern family, addiction, pedophilia, cannibalism, and the last days of New Wave, interwoven with the lucid dreaming of...
WHY I STAND BY PLANNED PARENTHOOD
I was sixteen and in love for the first time. After months of heated groping, my high school boyfriend and I wanted to go all the way. If there was anything I was sure about at sixteen, it was that I had no desire to be a high school mom. That meant birth control....
VENUE CHANGE FOR LAIR OF DREAMS LAUNCH EVENT!
VENUE CHANGE, YOU MUST LET THE PEOPLE KNOW. Hey, campers! Sorry for the late notice, but we’ve got a venue change for the LAIR OF DREAMS launch event with special guest Chuck Wendig on Tuesday, 8/25. Due to some technical requirements for the musical portion of the...