The Realization that I Could Write My writing journey started in the mid-1990s when I realized that I could string words together for a compelling narrative–that I could get my thoughts down on paper in a meaningful way. Which surprised Read more
“I love rules precisely because they make transgression possible.” ~François Camoin (“The Texture of Fiction”) A Stickler for Punctuation Rules? Many people have noted the contradictory nature of the two main aspects of my professional life. I am, on the Read more
Happy 65th Birthday! About ten weeks ago, the day before my sixty-fifth birthday, a freshly-inked Medicare card in my wallet, I joined the ranks of the retired, and I told everyone who asked that I was going to become a Read more
Author’s Note: A couple of months ago, I had a post about generating writing ideas. That post focused on general writing ideas, though, and not creative writing (i.e., poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction). When generating creative writing ideas, my approach is Read more
So Many Books to Choose from! One of the most awesome things about trying to choose just a handful of book titles to highlight is that there are so many to choose from! For that reason, I want to offer Read more
Banned Books Week, Days 4, 5, and 6 Story Collections Versus Novels When I tell people that I’m a [fiction] writer, they tend to assume that I write novels. I don’t. Or, to be more precise, I haven’t yet. Maybe Read more
Let’s “Czech” Out Some Short Stories! Czech literary history is rife with examples of censorship, but it’s a history we can learn from. For Banned Books Week days 2 and 3, I thought I’d highlight a couple of my favorite Read more
Let’s Celebrate! Banned Books Week is a week for celebrating books. As a writer, I’m naturally an avid reader as well, so I like to think that I celebrate the written word on a daily basis. Even so, I’m always Read more
Read Banned Books I have a vague recollection of reading the short story “Enoch” by Robert Bloch when I was in junior high. We’re talking over thirty years ago, so I don’t really recall the story at all, and I Read more
The Singular “They” Thirty(ish) years ago, my English teachers discouraged my peers and me from using the singular they (them, their, etc.) in our writing. For the papers I wrote in high school, using the phrase he or she (or Read more