It seems like anytime I meet a new group of people and tell them I’m a writer, I get questions like this at least once. “How many books have you sold?” “Are you able to make a living at that?” “Are you successful?” Or some variations thereof. I hate these questions. I never have the […]
Fact: I don’t watch a lot of sports. Whether football, basketball, baseball, or anything else, I’m just not that into it. Do I watch when my city’s team is in the playoffs? Sure. Am I fair weather fan? Sure. If that’s the worst insult you can sling at me, I’ll take it. Still, along with […]
It’s November again, and if you know anyone who has ever thought about writing a book, you may already know: November is NaNoWriMo. For the uninitiated, NaNoWriMo parses out to National Novel Writing Month. Basically, writers are challenged to write 50,000 words—a novel—in the month of November. The challenge started in 1999 with 21 participants, […]
I have two songs in my main iTunes playlist that feature a singer I used to know. Used to, that is, because he died, very suddenly and far too young, a couple of years ago. I keep the songs in there because every time they come up I am reminded: everyone dies. This isn’t intended […]
I’m on Day 17 of this posting a blog post every day, but the habit is definitely not ingrained yet. At the end of each day (such as now, as I wait for more trick-or-treaters to ring the doorbell), a moment comes where I realize I haven’t written anything yet. I did get writing done […]
One of the easiest ways to be viewed as a tremendous conversationalist is to listen and ask questions. Listen with an open mind. Let questions arise from the conversation. Be curious. Don’t listen with the aim to find how the other person’s situation fits into the narrative you want to talk about so you can […]
Yesterday I started reading Kristi Ling’s book Operation Happiness (which I love already). Just now, I got to a line that stopped me for a moment: Love is the single most powerful force in the universe. True enough, I thought. It wasn’t that statement itself that stopped me. What stopped me was this: We talk all the […]
When we mess up, it’s easy to want others to be a little forgiving of us. To give us the benefit of the doubt. To understand that we’re only human and we’re doing the best we can. But when someone else messes up at our expense, it’s easy to forget all that. It’s easy to […]
It seems, sometimes, that life is unbearably, irrevocably difficult. Or that everything is falling apart with no hope of falling together again. Or that the mistake you made is unforgivable and enormous. Or the person you wronged will never let you make it right. Or that the weight of the world will pivot on a challenging […]
In June 2009, without really realizing what I was doing, I joined the ranks of independent artists. In the years since then I’ve had the joy, honor, and delight to meet dozens of independent artists in all genres: writers, visual artists, jewelers, musicians, film producers, and more. I was talking last night with a friend who […]
