Catching up on the movies I missed last year slaving over my novel draft, last night I watched Silver Linings Playbook. The film is about a young man, Pat Solitano, from a working class Italian family in north Philadelphia, who…
Nothing makes me stop reading a novel faster than a poorly realized protagonist. Why? Because that character is the guide to a new world, and if he lacks credibility the whole story does too. Below, I have listed some examples…
For those of you who read my October 10, 2013 entry (“Purposeful Hoarding”), you will know of my penchant for hanging onto things (not so much balls of string as the archives of my life.) Somewhere in a box (probably…
Every now and then, I reach out to writing friends and classmates I haven’t talked to in a while. Part of the reason is to ensure they’re not dead on the toilet*. None of them are dead, they’re just busy…
My daughter first sang in public when she was three years old. I can still see her in a dark-flowered dress, fearlessly belting out “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” in a husky voice that someone once referred to as a whiskey…
(This post originally appeared on Grub Street Daily). Many of us have a number one cultural issue that causes sleep deprivation, countless battles with friends and family or even, in my case, compels you to take on the daunting task…