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Media Kit download a media kit about LJ and her debut release, THE BETWEEN
Guest
Blog Appearances:
Guide to Literary
Agents:
How I Got my Literary Agent
Writer
Unboxed:
Why I don't Count Followers, Mentions,
Google Alerts, or Blog Hits Anymore
Accentuate
the Positive: Hope and the Aspiring Writer
Organize
your Novel with a Wiki, Part
II
Organize your Novel with a Wiki, Part I
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Op Ed Columns
in
The Newton Tab
Cohen: A Dog Owner's Manifesto
(October 9, 2011)
In
a moment of what was probably temporary insanity, I adopted a second
dog. This was just as we moved back into our home after being
displaced for most of the year by a house fire and as our eldest child
was heading off to his freshman year. To say that the past few
months have been a time of extreme transition would be an
understatement. It was probably the exact wrong time to introduce
something new and needy into our lives, but when do we ever do things
on a convenient schedule? (read more. . . )
Cohen: Winning the Lottery and Paying it
Back (April 23, 2011) This
isn't the kind of lottery where you hand over a wrinkled dollar or two
for a scratch ticket and the chance to win that big payout. No, the
lottery I am thinking about is the accident of birthplace, time, and
family constellation. This is what the late political philosopher, John
Rawls called the pre-birth lottery; those elements we inherit as
infants, through no particular fault or talent of our own. By
any accounting, I won that pre-birth lottery. In 1963, I was born to an
unmarried 17-year-old high school student in California. My genetic
father was several years older than she was, a working man by what
information I have, and not a member of the same social class or
religion as her family. Again, as far as I know, they had no ongoing
relationship. I'm not even certain he knew of my existence. That may be
the start of my story, but it is by no means the important part. (read more. . . )
Cohen: Winter Survival: The Driving Edition
(Feb 9, 2011)
I've
lived my entire life in climates where winter driving was a necessity.
And I'm married to a self-described car nut whose definition of a
mid-life crisis was to become a high performance driving instructor and
the part owner of a race car. Because of said spouse's love of all
things car and driving related, I was persuaded to take a driving
safety school class and I spent an entire day in the parking lot at the
NH International Speedway learning to handle my car in all sorts of
conditions, including driving figure of eights on a skid pad.
There
is nothing like experiencing your car lose contact with the ground to
reinforce the knowledge that you are hurtling along in a several
thousand pound projectile.
(Read more. . . )
Cohen: A house Fire: Kindness, Community,
and Lessons Learned (Jan 17, 2011)
In the early
morning hours of Dec. 1, we were awoken by the smoke detectors in our
home. I say 'we,’ but really it was my husband who woke up, smelled
smoke, and got the rest of us up and moving. We ran out of the house in
pajamas and bare feet—my husband, my two sons, our exchange student,
and myself—and stood on the pavement as an orange fireball bloomed in
our basement window and the entire house filled with oily black smoke.
Time elapsed from initial waking: about 90 seconds.
Lesson number 1: Don't stop to look for shoes.
(Read more. . . )
Cohen:
When optimism and hope prevail (Dec 15, 2010)
It
is common knowledge that teenagers are idealistic and naïve, even if
those traits are camouflaged beneath a veneer of apparent cynicism.
Adults, on the other hand, are supposed to be the realists. The voices
of reason. Cynics by virtue of our greater life experience. So it is
against that backdrop, I tell you the story of my 17-year-old son, his
lost MP3 player, and the afternoon his optimistic parents were right.
(Read more. . . )
Cohen:
Newton: An 18-year love affair with place (Sept 28, 2010)
Newton is my
home. I say that because I’ve now lived here longer than I’ve lived
anywhere. This is where my husband and I purchased our house in 1992
and where both of our children were born, raised and educated.
When
we were looking for a community to live in, we took several
considerations into account: I needed to be close to a city and its
culture. As a “recovering” New Yorker, I knew that the far suburbs, no
matter how lovely, would be an isolated and isolating move for me.
A veteran people-watcher, I needed my daily fix of coffee shops, book stores and diversity.
(Read more. . . )
Cohen:
This is not the Kyrgyzstan I know (June 23, 2010)
Almost
a year ago, my family was getting ready for a trip of a lifetime. A
trip into the unknown a world away. A trip to Kyrgyzstan. We had been
planning for this adventure for almost six months and when we told
friends and family about it, we invariably got one of two responses:
Where the heck is Kyrgyzstan? or Why would you want to go there?
Now
when we talk about our three-week journey, most people have at least
heard of the small Central Asian nation. What they know of it is
political chaos, violence and ethnic hatred.
This is not the Kyrgyzstan I know.
(Read more. . . )
Cohen:
Getting the message: Cell phones and driving (June 2, 2010)
There
was a time when I was casual about driving while using my cell phone.
The options of voice dial, speed dial and a speaker phone gave me a
false sense of security in my own ability to manage talking and
driving. Then something changed. No, this is not a dramatic story of a
crash or a cell phone-related accident; it is the story of a small
epiphany that coincided with my oldest son reaching driving age.
(Read more . . . )
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