“The curious are always in some danger. If you are curious, you might never come home.” - Jeanette Winterson When my son was three years old, he was Captain Hook for Halloween. It was …
Inspiration
Becoming a Professional Writer
The publishing industry has undergone tremendous changes over the years. “Mid-list” writers who relied on decent advances from their publishers have found themselves shut out of the big publishing …
The Creative Process
When my son, Ray, was first learning to speak, there were so many new words each day — the syntax often fascinating and occasionally perverse. He also had a sophisticated sense of humor. He called his …
Trust
I grew up in a very bright, academic family, but at times I felt alone. My family members were very logical, reasonable people. I was not. I was more interested in the nature of things and the unseen …
No Good Guys, No Bad Guys
There are times, as storytellers, when we can be so bull-headed about what we want to express, that we end up pushing an agenda rather than telling a story. We create "good guys and bad guys," and in …
Choice
Why do we write? Why do we spend months, years, even decades engaged in the solitary act of creating a world on paper with no assurance than anyone will read it, except perhaps our immediate family, …
Writing Fiction: Letting Go of Our Story
“Danger lies in the writer becoming the victim of his own exaggeration, losing the exact notion of sincerity, and in the end coming to despise truth itself as something too cold, too blunt for his …