Category: Uncategorized

Here’s the Beef on Stakes

“What’s at stake here?” Sooner or later every fiction writer fields this question. Often the challenge appears as a single word – STAKES? – scrawled on a novel chapter or short story draft, plus or minus a coffee cup ring,…

Back With a Brand-New Edition

Thank you for bearing with us as we pulled together a fancier, funkier website. Our hope is that the content will be easier to find, easier to read, and quicker to load. We also implemented some things on the back-end…

Voice Lessons for Writers

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…

The Secrets to Becoming a Writer

Stories, with their powers to transport us to distant lands and imagine ourselves as others, are magical. But I’ll tell you a secret. The writing of stories is not magic. Writers are regular people. They are regular people who are…

Purposeful Hoarding

I have a writing friend who never keeps anything beyond that which she needs in the immediacy of her life. I admire her minimalism, but in the core of my being, I am a saver. If you looked at my…