It’s my birthday today, so I hope you’ll indulge my navel-gazing. If you’d told three-year-old me about what my life eventually look like, she would have stared at you in disbelief. But if you’d told my amazing first grade teacher at Bay Vista Elementary, Virginia Halsey, that I’d grow up to be a writer, I think she would have said “of course.” (That’s me, third from right, second row from bottom.) Talk about coincidences, that boy, top right, center, @meachamandrew, my oldest friend, also grew up to become a journalist and a talented writer. If you’d told 1988 me that I’d quit my job at @ajcnews—a job that had been my dream for years, I’d have the reaction shown in this photo. But newspapers changed and I was not consulted. So then 1992 me published her first book, Every Crooked Nanny, and I had my first signing at the now, sadly defunct Oxford Books in Atlanta. Fast forward to this year, when my 34th novel came out and debuted at #5 on the New York Times bestseller list. Seventy-two-year-old me is still amazed, still a little dubious, still waiting for the moment my publisher wakes up & demands the money back. (We Irish are a superstitious lot.) But until then, Imma blow out the candles, eat all the cake & continue to count my blessings—and to thank all of you for helping my dreams come true. #happybirthdaytome #dontstopdreaming #writerlife #buymybookdammit

Did a different kind of picking at Squirrel Hollow this morning. Figs, maters, cherry maters and tiny lil carrots. #squirrelhollow #gardengoodness #figjam

When your old pal, the iconic @lisascottoline comes to town, it’s always gonna be a pastafazoolish party. Lisa and I were in the same playpen as baby authors more than thirty years ago. Same publisher, same editor—twice! She packed the house at @thebookbirdae to celebrate her 35th novel, This Changes Everything. After, we shut down the house at @no246atlanta because the girl’s carb count was dangerously low. If you missed us last night, she left lots of signed copies! #buyherbookdammit #thischangeseverythingbook #bookbesties