I came to the realization that in all of my writing, be it novel or short story, poem or prose, I am weaving a web. Everything seems so individual and unconnected (not to be confused with disconnected, mind you), but really, they all are just different threads in a tapestry of worlds and timelines and planes of existence. Portete* was the anchor for the…

We write stories, do we not? Our act of telling is an act of creation. We are the omniscient and the omnipotent on the page, creating the genesis of our worlds, molding them to meet our plans, and bringing the tales within us to life. We are the creators.

As I continue on this journey back to my life as a writer, I think a lot about the road that got me here. I have always written, as I have mentioned before, but there was a period of time where I didn’t do it for myself. I didn't pen anything in the fiction realm, or really anything creative. It was all articles, technical, and whatnot.

If you have not read Milk and Cookies’ post about “Low Energy Habits”, you really should. It is a reminder, at least for me, to be kind to myself and treat myself gently and with love. This is not about indulging or “I deserve this” or anything like that. It is simply about doing some small, simple things to help soften you day to day. Defining “self ca…

As I mentioned last week, it was Spring Break around the household, which meant little time for writing (although I did manage to imagine and create a short story that is already forming into something much larger in my head). A lot of my time was spent on Big Projects, namely, the deconstruction, replanning, and reconstruction of our chicken coop.

So, I know I was pretty ambitious with my writing and posting schedule as I entered this new phase of my writing life. I had “committed” to posting something each weekday: blog-type thing on Monday, poem on Tuesday, novel chapter on Wednesday, writing assignment piece on Thursday, and short story on Friday. It’s a lot. In retrospect, I attacked this the…

I had been doing really well. Consistent. Knocking out the work day after day, every week day. I had a schedule, I kept to it, and it was producing results. And then work got in the way.

First off, a huge thank you to M. Anne Avera for her original post on this topic. Her discussion of certain books that were influential in her life and growth made me think about the books that, over my nearly 54 years of life, are deeply rooted and woven into the very fabric of who I am today. I owe much of my love of books and writing to my mother, wh…

Season 20: Episode 6: Lens 2 - Identity 1 - History and Community

I had an exchange with the incomparable Stroopwaffled last week (she kissed River Phoenix, in case you were wondering) and it had me thinking about some of my own “brushes” with celebrity. This is not a bragging or one-upping type of post at all. It is just simply what is.

Season 20: Episode 4: Metaphor 1 - Puppetry

So I will start off by acknowledging that professional wrestling is not everyone’s cup of tea. And that’s fair. But regardless of your love or disdain for it, you cannot dispute that it is hugely popular around the world. If you are skeptical of that claim, or think that the WWE is some sort of niche thing for weirdos and guys in their mom’s basement or…

I am not a big podcast person, generally speaking. I know a lot of folks love them, listen to them for hours on end, while they are running, working out, working, etc. I have to say, it is not something I get into for the most part. The exception being writing podcasts. Specifically, ones that are a group of writers talking about the craft, tools they u…

It is fascinating to me how certain individuals stick in your memory over the years. I don’t mean the ones that are in your “inner circle” or day-to-day. Not family members or loved ones, friend groups, etc. But someone who you have a passing connection with. There is something about them that just… lingers. They are lodged in your psyche like a commerc…

This is an updated repost from May of 2022…

It feels like every few years - or, honestly, more frequently than that recently - we are faced with the realization that someone whose work we love, be it music, art, literature, or film, is actually a pretty awful human being. And not just that they said something ugly, or made a mistake, or were simply imperfect. I am talking real, unquestionably rep…

I feel like I must have discussed this at some other point, but I want to talk a bit about genre when it comes to writing and being creative. I have never really thought about it before recently, but I don’t know many authors who truly cross over genres in their writing. Now, I could be absolutely wrong about this. Certainly wouldn’t be the first time. …

With a New Year always comes the expectation of “new year new me” types of statements. The practice of setting New Year’s Resolutions. And the reality that few people get through the end of January keeping them. So much so, that it is an oft-repeated joke. I read somewhere that “Resolutions focus on the negative while intentions focus on the positive”. …

One of my favorite things about traveling - particularly outside the United States - is seeing new places and imagining them as settings in my writing. From the highlands of Scotland to Rainbow Mountain in Peru to the rainforests of Costa Rica, everything I see is a new place for a story. When I was in Nairn, Scotland, just north of Inverness, I knew I …

I love Christmas music. Like, a lot. I know some folks hate it. Some begrudgingly allow it during the holidays. The “purists” are strict about after-thanksgiving-probably-December-first-is-appropriate.

“I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

“You must write every single day of your life… You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads… may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.” – Ray Bradbury

“Never wait on the right time, cause the right time ain’t never coming. The devil’s job is to rob you of your destiny. So there will always be an obstacle. So if you are waiting on the right time, you’ll never make your move. Move on your idea now, don’t wait. JUMP!” – Steve Harvey

There is a well-known letter written by Kurt Vonnegut that he sent to a high school class respectfully declining an invitation to visit them. The guy was 84 years old, so I absolutely get it. I am not going to just repost it here, cuz that kinda feels like cheating, but I

I don’t want this account to be about politics. So after this one, we move on to better things like writing and music and reading and so on.

These are the words we heard in the early trailers for the Star Wars series “Obi-Wan Kenobi”. Those of us who have been fans of Star Wars forever felt that pang. We know the story. We know the lore. And we know that the Republic fell to the Empire, the Rebellion rose and conquered the Empire, the First Order rose from the ashes of the Empire, and then t…