Last month, I was a speaker at the League of Utah Writers annual Quills Writing Conference in Salt Lake City. I moved to Colorado in May, but I guess they still like me in Utah, because they haven’t revoked my membership yet. So it was fun and motivating to see old writing friends and make […]
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Goal + Fear = Conflict
So there’s this guy. He’s tall. Bit of a loner. Okay, a lot of a loner, even when he’s with people. I know what he drives. I know what he drinks. I know he’s getting mixed up with a woman who may not be who she says she is. But I don’t know what makes […]
Why We Need Other Writers in Our Lives
You know what they say. They try to tell us that writing is a lonely calling. That we should be huddled in attics, with our eyesight failing and our shoulders hunched, madly scratching away at our craft while the world rotates somewhere out there, beyond the window, without us. The problem is, that’s not necessarily […]
Teenage Boys Who Read and Other Mythological Creatures
Just when I think I’ve got him figured out, my teenage son does something unexpected. He buys a book. Doesn’t he know teenage boys don’t read books? Doesn’t he realize he’s defying all the publishing experts who have written him off as a demographic? Does he ENJOY being a rebellious anomaly? Apparently. Honestly, my 16-year-old […]
Finding Familiar Stories in Sicilian Ruins
An ocean scene mosaic at the Villa Romana del Casale near Piazza Armerina in Sicily Standing in the remains of a palace built nearly two thousand years ago, I stared at mosaics on the floor depicting stories I knew. And those stories aren’t just two thousand years old. In fact, those stories were already a […]
12 Reasons Why Writers Like Lists
1. A list captures thoughts quickly before they escape into the ether. Thoughts are slippery little devils, after all. 2. When you start making a list, word-association becomes a common by-product, leading to creative tangents that sometimes prove to be exactly the thing you were looking for. 3. Writing a list makes you look busy, […]
