My mission to single-handedly revive the lost art of cut-up cakes continues. Cut-up cakes are like jigsaw puzzles. Only tastier. To date, I’ve made an airplane, a Santa, a witch and a daisy. A mission like this takes commitment, tenacity and shredded coconut. Lots and lots of coconut.

I think most writers insert little snippets of their own lives into their fictional worlds. If you’re reading my work, chances are you’ll stumble across a reference to a casserole, squares or something made with corn syrup. That’s because I grew up eating this stuff.

It look me a long time to write my new book, Break in Case of Emergency. Eight years, in fact. And while I could lie and say that I spent most of that perfecting my adjectives, the bottom line is that most of those eight years were wasted.

When my dad died 18 years ago, I went through a phase where I wore some of his personal items. I guess it was part of the grieving process, a way of keeping him alive through the extension of my living body.

Who isn’t trying to cut corners these days? But should the line be drawn with chocolate? I picked up six brand name chocolate bars and paired them against their dollar store equivalents. I conducted a blind taste test and enlisted the services of a second taste tester, so you’ll get more than just my opinion. Even though mine is the most important. Obviously. So how did the dollar store bars stack up?