One of the websites I’ve gotten quite fond of is quora.com. It’s simply a forum where people can ask questions or go and answer other people’s questions. I get asked a lot of questions about writing there, and get to ask professionals questions that help me in the writing of my books. Yesterday someone asked … More Beyond the Big Picture
I’ve been asked what the hardest part of writing a novel is, and my answer tends to be directly related to how well my novel-building is going at the time. My dad used to have a saying: “Some days you eat the bear, and some days the bear eats you.” Some books come together quickly … More Brick By Brick
I was watching The Late Show with Stephen Colbert the other night when the actor Paul Dano was being interviewed. Stephen Colbert talked about how “intimate” his acting roles tend to be, and it got me thinking about writing (of course). Intimacy. Privacy. Vulnerability. It’s what we all resist sharing, and yet it’s what we … More The Yin and Yang of Storytelling
We’re on the other side of two monumental responsibilities of mine. (who-hoo!) The deadline for high schoolers to turn in their four-minute videos in the 48-hour film challenge at our University was 90 minutes ago. At the same time, the University website, the project that has obsessed me since Christmas, has been put to bed … More Idle Hands Are the Devil’s Workshop
It’s almost the end of September, which means November is just around the corner. And if you’re a writer you know what that means…. National Novel Writing Month. Yup. Don’t know if I have the courage yet to try it again this year, but I have done it five times before and succeeded four times, … More Ping Pong Writing
OK, I’ll admit that I’ve been stalling. I’ve been hoping that I could make this big splash and announce that I was officially done with my months-long construction bathroom project that started with me clearing out the clog in the pipes of a bathroom sink, led to me tearing out the walls and ended up … More Almost, But Not Quite There
The Great Adventure 