I will admit two embarrassing things here. First, I’ve been known to buy books based on the cover. Second, ever since my tenure in the young adult library section in the 1980s, I’ve generally viewed YA as a category of fiction that I’d rather have nothing to do with....

As an author, I’ve taken a lot of writing classes and been in many writing groups. I’m also an editor. And between those two functions, I’ve had it tattooed on my brain that you must have high stakes, plot tension, and a fast-moving pace. So I cast a wary eye on the...

Having suffered some fatalities on my bookshelf last year (a glass of water on the top shelf dispatched many of my paperbacks as it fell), I’ve been wanting to plump up the “plant magic” section of my bookshelf.  And to that end, I ordered Witch’s Garden on a whim,...