Archive

  • Music While I Work

    What do you listen to while you work? I’m no music afficionado or expert. If you ask me what type of music I like best, I’ll probably only manage something banal like “The music that sounds best to me” or “I like what I like.” I have a pretty broad taste in music, though it Read more

  • A Writer’s Lament

    My friends and family know I’m a writer. They know that I’ve published one book and am currently working on a second. That arouses interest, and it invites a question. It’s a question I never feel I can adequately answer: “How’s your book coming along?” What do I say? Do I delve into the complexities Read more

  • Big Buzzing Bullies

    There are bullies under the summer sun. They have no sense of mercy, they inflict harm without cause, and they don’t even have the decency to enjoy it. They buzz around like yellow caution signs of doom. They set up shop exactly where it will worst inconvenience you – butting into your backyard and your Read more

  • Committing to First-Person Narratives

    When you think of writing a book, “commitment” is a word you might associate with time discipline, writing a certain number of words per day, or setting aside a chunk of your budget for publishing and marketing. You wouldn’t necessarily think of the writing itself. After all, writing is all about making changes. That’s what Read more

  • Writers, You Can’t Be Perfect

    There is no such thing as a perfect story. To strive for perfection is something that writers do. We put all our effort into writing stories that are perfectly plotted, that contain no plot holes or leaps of logic, that are devoid of unnecessary fluff, that are devoid of grammar and spelling mistakes. Perhaps even Read more

  • Improve Your Writing … By Writing

    If there was a magic trick to becoming a better writer, if there was a special class or a magic book, I’d be recommending that here instead. But, obvious as it may sound, the only way to become a better writer is to, well, write. It’s one of those facts of life that’s so simple Read more