“We live in a culture that says you should be able to power through anything. Life will very generously remind you that you cannot, and it will very generous...

The Medical Dictionary defines holophrase as a "a single word, usually an imperative verb, used to convey a variety of meanings. It is common in the developm...

Most people would agree that their creative output falls far short of their ambitions. I would put myself in that box. I know I lack the discipline to stick w...

It's fall and the weekend before Samhain and Halloween. I've been remiss in keeping up with my blog so I thought this was the perfect weekend for it. With al...

When battling procrastination, many writers go straight for the jugular. That is, we fall deep into the well of shame, inadequacy, and powerlessness. Sometim...

Occasionally when I get together with my weekly writer group, talk turns to aimless meanderings. Over tea, coffee, or cocktails, and always snacks, we discus...

Do you feel deeply connected with your protagonist’s struggle, despite the ways in which you differ? This was a question Barbara Linn Probst recently posed i...

Straightjacketing fiction or filling space between the facts? You decide. 'Faction' is a made-up word (not mine) intended to encompass a body of work that is...

First week back after the Chanticleer Authors Conference in beautiful Bellingham, WA. This conference was smaller than what I am used to at PNWA, HNS, Surrey...

March and April were conference months for me, both as a first-time attendee to Left Coast Crime and Chanticleer, respectively. Each conference offered some...

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit ...

The signature line on my personal email is, Wordsmithing my way through life, one story at a time. However, after reading Elizabeth Berg's article, I might n...

Fifteen of my favorite things: a lit candle Wonder Woman magnet a timer (for writing sprints) a paper calendar with owls on it Huxley the Mouse Writer, my mu...

In his final 2018 blog post on Gates Notes, philanthropist Bill Gates, 63, said he still assesses the quality of his work, but the questions are very differe...

"I don't know where I'm going from here, but I promise it won't be boring." ~David Bowie I know we're only 25 days into the new year of 2019, but this feelin...

Today, at 11 AM precisely, I was the featured author at the Timberland Library's Author Talk in Shelton, WA. I was a small bundle of nerves when I walked thr...

Mid-April was time well spent at Holly House in Shelton, WA, where I was fortunate to have the peace I needed to write some difficult scenes for my manuscrip...

Brooms and cats and cauldrons and hats. Typically, you think Halloween, but what if I told you there's more than meets this Eye of Newt. These items were the...

Autumn of 2015, I was inspired to enter a contest sponsored by Oberon Wines. The theme was, "What do roots mean to you?" I wrote 1100 words about my Friulian...

Jose Saramago, Portuguese novelist and 1998 Nobel Prize winner for literature, gave a most wonderful speech, of which, I quote in part here. Having spoken of...