May is Jewish American Heritage Month.

When I wrote my debut novel, For the Love of Friends, I made my main character half Jewish. I was nervous that people weren’t going to read and identify with a “happy” book that had a centered around even a secular Jewish woman. The literary landscape was kind of a desert in that area to be honest. There were plenty of Holocaust stories and immigrant stories (and some kinda steamy romances from the 70s that my mom gave me in high school…), but happy stories about Americans who happened to be Jewish? Few and far between. So I tested the waters.

And when no one said a word about her background, I went all in on She’s Up to No Good.

When that one came out, I spoke to a book club with a group of women who told me they had never met a Jew. And as I’m sitting there getting ready to show them that no, I didn’t have horns, they said something surprising. They told me that what they love about my books is that the characters are Jewish, but it isn’t their whole personality.

I had to sit with that one for a little while to figure out what it meant. But as I started to get emails from people of other religious and ethnic backgrounds saying, “This could be my family,” I began to understand what that book club had been saying.

In the last couple of years in particular, there has been a lot of othering of Jewish people. And while I think my last name has insulated me from some of the nastiness (Confino IS Jewish for those of you who are wondering—my husband is Sephardic!), I’ve also started to see the real importance of Jewish American stories that aren’t about suffering. Yes, representation matters (ask my son who wore his Indiana Jones hat to school for a full year after finding out Harrison Ford is Jewish). But if my books help readers see that we’re all PEOPLE, that matters even more. We might look a little different, eat some different foods, celebrate some different things, but inside, all of us are the same. And, to quote Tolstoy, “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

So read a book by a Jewish American author this month, because hate has no home here. 🫶🏻

#JAHM #bookstagram

Listen, when I tell you all I was NERVOUS asking @authoralexandrarobbins to blurb Off the Record, believe it. Not because I didn’t think she would, but because she’s like… THE REAL DEAL as a journalist. And while I taught journalism for a million years and was a journalism major in college, I had never WORKED as a professional journalist. What if she told me I got literally everything wrong?

Instead, she gave me the sweetest endorsement—and because she has lived the real experience, that meant the absolute world to me.

And for every woman who ever did something a man told you that you couldn’t—this book is for you!

Preorder your copy today, wherever books are sold. Signed and personalized copies can be ordered from parkbooksmd.com (just make an account for shipping!)

#bookstagram #preorder

Overdid it on the exercise so editing It’s a Shore Thing looks like RICE (rest, ice, compression and elevation) today…

So much for that endorphin-based anxiety control for a couple days 🫠🫠🫠

And that pillow that my foot is propped up on reads “Main Character Energy.” My mother sent me a picture of it one day, thinking it was funny, and I begged her to go back into the store and get it for me. Look, ma! It came in handy!

Sigh…

#authorlife

ETA: Giveaway has ended! Our winner is @divacanread! DM me where to send this and stay turned for more giveaways!

We are exactly six weeks from the launch of Off the Record, which means it’s time for a giveaway!

Today’s giveaway is co-sponsored by Jessica at @nextchapterolney, who is on a mission to bring a bookstore to my community. I LOVE the idea of a bookstore that my kids will be able to ride their bikes to!

So to win a signed advance copy of Off the Record:

1) Follow me if you aren’t already
2) Follow @nextchapterolney
3) Tag a friend and tell them to preorder Off the Record

A winner will be selected Friday, May 1. No purchase necessary.

Side note: I love when my book covers perfectly match things that are already on my shelves! 😍

#bookstagram #giveaway

When I was a kid, I LOVED the Babysitters Club books. And my local bookstore used to hold a copy at the register for me every month on release day because they knew I’d be in for it.

Today is Independent Bookstore Day, and we take that seriously in my house. Because the big retailers don’t know you like your local bookstore does. And now that I’m a mom, I want my kids to have that same kind of experience that I did with my now long gone bookstore. So I love that I can walk into an indie, tell them what my kids have liked, and walk out with their new favorite book.

I’ll be at @parkbooksmd today from 12-2 signing books (no, I won’t wear a band shirt to see that band live, but I’ll apparently wear a bookstore shirt to the bookstore 🤣). So come say hi if you can, but wherever you are, support an independent bookstore today, either in store or online—you can also preorder your copy or Off the Record from one!

Only have a big box store near you? Here are some of my favorite independent bookstores that have supported me over the years:

@parkbooksmd
@wonderlandbookstagram
@backwaterbooks
@beachboundbookshop
@bethanybeachbooks
@browseaboutbooks
@northportbooks

Happy reading!

#independentbookstoreday #bookstagram

📣📣 TOUR DATES 📣📣

Okay, there are a LOT of places to find me this spring/early summer (like @parkbooksmd TOMORROW from 12-2 for Independent Bookstore Day and the Annapolis and Gaithersburg Book Festivals), but I wanted to put these dates out there for you to add to your calendar!

If you haven’t been to a book launch event before, they’re fun (AND I’ll have cake at the first two)! Come see me at one and get your copy of Off the Record signed right there!

Can you make it to one of these? Drop me a comment and tell me where I’ll see you!

And make sure you subscribe to my substack for a full list of dates! (Link in bio)

#bookstagram #booktour

Because grandpa’s job is apparently way cooler than mine (because as Max explained it, @univofmaryland has “a literal ice cream store”) and because I don’t have a convertible anymore, my kids are riding in style to Take Your Child to Work Day with @jordangoodman341

Granted this is only the second time he’s had both boys without adult supervision, so good luck, Dad 🤣

#takeyourchildtoworkday #grandpa