A day or two ago an author friend of mine on Facebook commented that she secretly enjoyed reading someone’s published work and then realizing that she could write better than they could. Well, Ingrid, you’re not alone there. Writing is a solitary, very often thankless, job. And we have to take joy wherever we can … More Secret Pleasures and Public Obligations
I spent the morning working on school stuff. Yes, school is over, but I am also responsible for the school’s website and the alumni magazine (what can I say? It’s a small school.). So I am trying to get at least the magazine “put to bed” this week so that my energies can be directed … More Loose ends
I’ve had many people tell me I am good at multitasking. I’m also pretty versatile. Both have come from a lifetime of (1) doing other jobs to pay bills while I feed my addiction for writing; and (2) juggling writing time with other responsibilities. I sincerely planned on doing nothing else this summer but work … More Time to Get Organicized
It seems like I am always switching gears. A little over a week ago, we had commencement, and I left teaching behind to focus on my writing career over the summer. Sometimes that takes a while to switch gears, but this time around, it doesn’t seem as hard. Maybe that’s because I have been spending … More Switching Gears
If you’ve been keeping up with my blog recently, you probably know I was on stay-cation. Stay-cation is my feeble attempt to share a vacation with my wife on a limited (read nonexistent) budget. It wasn’t all stay at home; Monday and Tuesday we were down with my son and his family in Austin. Saturday … More The Adulation of Millions…or at Least Eight
The following is a new short story that I intend to turn into part of my project Pilgrim’s Progress novel this summer. Enjoy. The sun baked our brown, supple bikinied bodies, and we reveled in it. Four of us—Marcie, Kimmy, Infinity and me, Ellie—were on permanent spring break. School was out, and we had no … More “The Stranger”
Maybe it’s because 2012 is the end of the world according to the Mayan calendar. But I have certainly seen a lot of apocalyptic stories being circulated out there. Of course, it all depends on how you define “apocalypse.” Most of those these days have to do with zombies (and defining that is another issue, … More What I’ve Learned from the Apocalypse
As I have mentioned here many times before, I’m teaching a Narrative Writing class this semester that is presently winding down. In addition to requiring students to write the first 50 pages of a novel as well as the outline, they will have an essay final. One of the questions on the final I have … More Can you believe it?
I’m the type of author that infuriates publishers. Hence I am publishing my own stuff these days. What I’m talking about it the whole concept of genre. I don’t know who invented the concept, but it didn’t take long for a lot of people to buy into the idea. The intent was to label stories … More Genre? What genre?
I am teaching a class called Drama Writing this fall, and once again it will be a first for me. I will be teaching both stage writing and screenwriting in that class. Today I had the opportunity to read through the introduction of my textbook for stage writing. The author tells of a rejection slip … More Compelling Evidence
The Great Adventure 