Survival Skill #2: Filleting A Fish

Growing up in northern Minnesota, you learn how to fish. When I was young, my dad bought me a fishing rod and reel, set up a five-gallon bucket in the middle of our yard, and had me practice my casting. […]

Survival Skill #1: Winter Camping

As part of the research for my Middle Grade work-in-progress, I’m learning as many survival skills as I can. My goal is to learn one skill per month in 2019. So far so…meh. To be frank, this past month didn’t […]

You Haven’t Outgrown Your Imagination

“My imagination isn’t what it used to be.” Amanda and I are standing around a kitchen island, catching up at a friend’s winter party. Most of the guests know each other through a local writing group, so talk often turns […]

Phone-Free Concert, Being Present, & Writing

silhouette of people at concert

Below me, a sea of humans jostle for space, chat, sip on amber-tinted beverages. They spread across a trough-like expanse, facing an enormous stage with several thirty-foot high screens stretching across it. There are 8,000 of us. I’m standing against […]

Writers: Dare to feel life deeply

  Memorable writing is provocative writing. It challenges our thinking; it creates emotional swells. Memorable writing puts us in a place and allows us to see, smell, touch, taste the surroundings. We’re there. We’re feeling the feels. We’re inside the […]

Let’s talk about character names.

graphic of 4 business people

I recently finished reading a book in which a large number of the character names began with the letter K. There was Kevin, Katrina, Karl, Kenneth. My head reeled as I worked my way through the pages. “Who is doing […]

The Woman in Green [Story #25]

I’m continuing with my character exposes for my yet-to-be-written YA novel. This one plays off of the last post. I am an ancient being. Big as the stars and the gaps between them. Bigger than the data flowing through supercomputers—machines […]