Archive

First Airstream holiday tree. This year, my parents and I decided to “just do stockings” for our Christmas celebration. My parents aren’t especially religious and I’m Buddhist, but we’ve always [...]

It might seem like now I finally get to sit back and wait. I’ve hired a publicist. I’ve hired someone to manage my book tour. I just watch it all happen, right? Wrong. There are print campaigns [...]

I know I post twice-weekly on The Writing Life, but this here writer is down for the count. I do have updated links on my about page, however, if you’re looking for a sneak peak at war [...]

Not too many months ago, I had a 10-week residency at Prairie Center of the Arts in Peoria, IL. While there, we had an open studio night and Robert Rowe, a professor at nearby Bradley University [...]

In October, I discussed the benefits of using imitation to learn and inspire new material for our own writing projects. While I’m not following Hegi’s form as strictly as when I first [...]

It’s been an exciting week here on Racoon Ridge in the Airstream! On Monday, sixty broadsides of my war flash fictions arrived from Gold Quoin Press, a small publisher out of Peoria, [...]

Going back to good ol’ PAGE ONE! When I coach myself through writing and revising new material, and when I coach my students, the mantra is the same: read your work out loud. Then read it [...]

Even bloggers celebrate Thanksgiving!  There is so much to be thankful for this season, not the least of which is having a place to call home. Thanks for reading, liking, linking, following, [...]

I spent a lot of time last week thinking about what it means to really live some place. To commit to it. To invest in a landscape as you might invest in a life partner. For three years I [...]

When I was in grad school, I had the luxury of communicating with my advisors every month about my current craft concerns. At the time, I was focused on nonfiction; specifically, a series of [...]