January is a traditional time to think about the writing habits that make us successful, the ones that could use some tweaking, some we need to abandon, and new ones we need to embrace. I talk more about this on the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers blog, so click here to read more: “Change Up Your […]
holidays
Happy Valentine’s Day and Other Murderous Sentiments
Are you ready for Valentine’s Day? Do you have your scythe sharpened and ready to wield? You don’t? Well, if you hurry, you can still hustle down to Home Depot and find a scythe in time. Or perhaps your local Guillotines-R-Us store has a few portable guillotine models left in stock. I know, we all […]
A Day for Fools and Other Speakers of Truth
I don’t love pranks. I’ve never been a fan of April Fools’ Day, even as a little kid. Pranks always seem to me like they’re designed to pointlessly humiliate the other person so that everyone else can laugh at them. Life is hard enough without purposefully making it harder for someone else when they’ve done […]
How to Make 2024 a Better Year (Mayhem Optional)
Welcome to 2024, a shiny new year full of promise and good intentions and definitely not heinous deceptions. Like you, I’m positive this is the year eight billion people will suddenly and inexplicably—all prior evidence to the contrary—morph into rational, caring, kind human beings. I hope I bought the right shoes for the occasion. Anyway, […]
Small, Extraordinary, Everyday Moments in Bonaire
An island of fossilized coral sits surrounded by Caribbean waters about 50 miles off the Venezuelan coast. This island is home to 1,100 wild donkeys, 15,000-20,000 pink flamingoes, and 30,000 wild goats. And only 20,000 people. What this not-so-typical Caribbean island, Bonaire, lacks in glitzy nightlife and casinos, it makes up for with some of […]
How Are You, Really? Thoughts on Memorial Day
In my inbox, a letter from a fellow writer: “How are you, really?” she asked, not just to me, but to all the writers she knows. She asked because she, too, is living through this time when every week brings a new, devastating knife to our society’s heart. She knew we are all suffering. How […]

