To Josefine on Your First Birthday
One year ago right now, you were still inside me. A machine spat pages to my left—my heartbeat and yours, jagged mountain ranges side by...
Namesake
Last night, on the eve of the 10-year anniversary of Nanny's passing, my daughter recognized her name for the first time. We were lying...
36 Weeks: What I've Learned About You, What I've Learned About Me
Photo by Adrian Collins Photography Early on, when mornings were still surreal with the idea of you inside me--when you were the size of...
Pregnancy Plan
The first time I heard the phrase "birth plan," I had no idea what it meant. Then I found out, and honestly, I thought it was silly--the...
Fifteen Weeks
Fifteen weeks. I'm 15 weeks pregnant. Every morning in bed, I curve my palms around the little hard globe of my lower belly. Good...
How to Perform a Resurrection
Every year on September 6, I make tortillas. And every year, they're wrong in a slightly different way. The first year, they were as hard...
Triage: Behind the Scenes with a Navy of Good Samaritans
Last Friday, I dropped by the HEB after lunch to pick up a few supplies for the weekend. San Antonio was on the outer edges of Hurricane...
#amquerying No More: A Writer's Guide to Finding--and Signing With--a Literary Agent
From the outside looking in--and sometimes the inside looking in--the road to publishing your first book can seem labyrinthine, fraught...
When The Book is Finished, the Hustle Begins
To those who have never written a book, writing the book probably seems like the hardest part of the process. Guess what? It's not! For...
On Charlie's First Birthday
Dear Charlie, The night before you were born, I woke up every two hours to check my phone for a text message from your mom. She’d been...