Joyce Maynard first came to national attention with the publication of her New York Times cover story, “An Eighteen Year Old Looks Back on Life”, in 1973, when she was a freshman at Yale. Since then, she has been a reporter and columnist for The New York Times, a contributor to the CBS program “Spectrum”, a syndicated newspaper columnist whose “Domestic Affairs” column appeared in over fifty papers nationwide, a regular contributor to NPR and national magazines including O, The Oprah Magazine, Newsweek, The New York Times Magazine, Forbes, Salon, San Francisco Magazine, USA Weekly and many more. She has appeared on Good Morning America, the Today program, CNN, Chris Matthews’ Hard Ball, Charlie Rose, and (on radio) on Fresh Air.

Author of eight books, including the novel To Die For (in which she also plays the role of Nicole Kidman’s attorney) and the best-selling memoir, At Home in the World, Maynard makes her home in Mill Valley, California. Her novel, The Usual Rules — a story about surviving loss — has been a favorite of book club audiences of all ages, and was chosen one of the ten best books for young readers for 2003. Her latest work, Internal Combustion: The Story of a Marriage and a Murder in the Motor City, was published in fall, 2006.

Mother of three grown children, she makes her home in Mill Valley, California, and Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, where, in addition to pursuing her own work, she also runs writing worshops. She serves on the faculty of the Stonecoast M.F.A Writing Program, based in Maine.

FAVORITE LINKS

RonaMaynard.com -- My sister Rona's memoir, My Mother's Daughter, was published on September 15.  I highly recommend it, but understanding that my own recommendation is somewhat biased I'll also mention here that Alice Munro -- one of my favorite living writers -- has called Rona's memoir "wonderfully honest and enthralling."

THEMOTH.ORG -- The best in oral storytelling! If you’re going to New York, catch one of their shows. Meanwhile, order a Moth Greatest Hits CD

BYWAYOF.NET -- Extremely cool downloads of music mixes by my favorite DJ, Captain Planet (my son Charlie).

More to come.

ABOUT OPIE

For nine years, our family lived with a wonderful Boston Terrier named Opie. (Although I bake pies, his name was not O-Pie. He was named after my favorite character on The Andy Griffith Show, the little boy, Opie, who always seemed so hopeful and innocent.) We got Opie on a family trip when my son Will turned ten, smuggled him home to New Hampshire with us on the plane, and eventually brought him back out to California when we moved west in 1996. He was a great dog.

There is only one problem I can think of with Boston Terriers, and even that one speaks to one of the sweet aspects of their personality: They have no homing instinct. To Opie, the whole world was his home, which meant that when you took a walk with him, he trotted ahead, greeting everyone he met, and sometimes walking on with them. We should have kept him on a leash at all times, but he loved to walk freely and so we kept tags on his collar with our phone number, and on the occasions when we’d lose him someone always called us and we’d bring him home.

But two years ago, exploring in Los Angeles with Willy, Opie got ahead, and Willy couldn’t find him. No call came. And though Willy drove all around, putting up flyers, we have not seen him since, though we choose to believe he is alive somewhere, with some person who is -- no doubt -- a dog thief, but one who loves him.

Some day I hope I live with a dog again, but not until I’m home enough to take good care of him. Meanwhile, not a day goes by I don’t think about Opie.

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