Competition teaches you things about yourself. Super competitive v. quitter? How to win. How to lose. Honest v. Cheater? Every spring, my workplace does a walk/run challenge. The rules are simple, and there are many rewards to be given out. Hit a specific weekly mileage--- bam! You're entered into a drawing. But of course, there … Continue reading Power Play
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The Problem with Profanity
I struggle sometimes, as a writer and as a Christian, with profanity. I've always taken the stance that I will use profanity in my writing when it feels applicable to a character or the narrative. However, it comes time to publish and share something, and I begin to feel self-conscious about my Christian friends reading … Continue reading The Problem with Profanity
Smokey Memory
I was struck by something when I walked out of work on Tuesday to drive home for lunch. My coworkers and I spent the morning observing the pall of wildfire smoke descend upon us. A sheet of white slowly swallowed the spine of the hills rimming our valley. We could not tell where the sky … Continue reading Smokey Memory
Privileged Person Free
All Jaden wanted was a coffee. Black. No sugar. Straight caffeine-jacked, high-octane java. Jaden was one of those people. The talk to me before coffee, and I'll knock your teeth out, people. Jaden was also one of those people. The I have my favorite coffee shop, and it's everyone else's favorite coffee shop, but I … Continue reading Privileged Person Free
Witness Beauty
The rain comes gently, the clatter of a million footsteps dancing across my roof. A lazy dance, unhurried. The birds roost in the spruce tree, ruffling their feathers. A cardinal squeaks, cocking his vermillion crest this way and that. The afternoon lies drowsy and chilly on the hillside. I watch the birds pecking in my … Continue reading Witness Beauty
The Small Fish Story
Trying to get a story published feels a bit like fishing. You try to find a promising stream (agent/publisher/magazine). You toss out your line--- watching it wink past the sun and drift out across the watery glaze--- and then you wait. "Here, fishy. Come on, fishy. Don't you like my little worm?" Some people are … Continue reading The Small Fish Story
Good Writing, Hard Discipline
What I love about writing--- You can let yourself slip into any setting--- any story. You can close your eyes on a summer day and transport yourself to a platinum-colored winter night where the velvet dark huddles beneath the fir trees. You can slip from the fog and rain of the northeast to the cicada-filled, … Continue reading Good Writing, Hard Discipline
The Start of Something, Perhaps…?
It was a new house and yet an old house. It sat at the end of a dead end street beneath the spreading branches of an orange maple tree. It had a deep back yard that would be dappled with sunshine in the summer, four stories--- if one counted the basement and the finished attic--- … Continue reading The Start of Something, Perhaps…?
Drop That Bar
Lower your standards. I mean it. Lower your standards. What’s wrong with being a hard-working, obscure writer? There are a lot of hard-working writers who have amazing bodies of work and hold their heads high every day. What makes you need to be the great American novelist… or nothing else? Here’s the problem with you. … Continue reading Drop That Bar
I’m Back
I feel ready to spread my wings--- stretch my muscles... You know, all the cliches. The problem is: I know writing shouldn't be just a muscle that I stretch, but rather it should be one I condition. I've spent my life punching clocks for a paycheck, doing work I don't even enjoy. It's time to … Continue reading I’m Back
Seeking Prose 