In between health problems, teaching classes and trying to get a magazine finished up, I have been thinking about National Novel Writing Month. I am eager to get started. I am also a bit apprehensive. Why? Because I still haven’t settled on a topic for my 50,000-word novel. And I am not one of those … More I think I can, I think I can….

Just a quick jot between classes to tell you that  no, I haven’t forgotten National Novel Writing Month. In fact, it is probably one of the top three things on my mind at present. And as I check in on Twitter, I hear another word being repeated quite often: steampunk. It seems there is a … More Steampunk? Steampunk!

This blog is to deliver kudos to two of my mentors. I started work at Pacific Press in 1998 about the same time that Tim Lale did. He was in charge of the copy preparation area–copy editors and proofreaders–and I was the new book editor and director of developmental research. We both followed our careers … More Honesty on a napkin

Last year, thanks to the magazine Wired (which I love), I discovered two things. I read an article and discovered Twitter. And I read another article and discover NaNoWriMo–National Novel Writing Month. And believe it or not, they’re related. I finally looked up the NaNo website on November 3 and made the plunge–three days late. … More And a NaNoWriMo to You, Too

I’ve had a rough month. First, there was the surgery two weeks before school started. Then school registration, the first week, then I have been on deadline for copy for Spirit Magazine. Finally I got an email from the high muckity-mucks back east that the presentation I am doing Oct. 12 had to have all … More It’s all about priorities

Thinking back on it, it’s hard to determine at what moment I decided I wanted to be a writer. I remember checking out baseball bats from the playground monitor in elementary school, then using them as guns as I either role played being a soldier lost behind enemy lines or a big game hunter/paleontologist/archeologist being … More You’re only a writer when….

I waffled a bit on the title for this post, considering “One is the loneliest number,” “You’re all alone, you know,” and the ubiquitous “Resources for writers.” But the idea–and the irony– is still the same. We write to share ideas with as many people as possible, yet in order to do that we have … More The loneliest place you’ll ever love

With preseason in session and the regular football season only weeks away, I find myself scanning the internet daily for news of the Oakland Raiders, my favorite NFL team. Today I read an interview between Pro Football Weekly and Nnamdi Asomugha, Raiders cornerback and reputedly the very best at his position in the NFL. Here’s … More Wanting it is not enough

Dan Lewis is a 43-year-old high school biology teacher living in San Jose, California who is a couch potato, likes football and has a rebellious teenage son, a workaholic wife, and a precocious 13-year-old daughter. Harris Borden is a 30-year-old Seventh-day Adventist pastor in Round Rock, Nevada. He feels he can’t preach and gets no … More Making friends