I’m now living my new life in another country. The basic set up of a new life in Ontario, Canada requires patience and grim determination. Stamina as well. A few days have passed since the hellish date of departure, and fortunately, that’s now past. I’d...
What you paid for something, in the end, comes down to what you can shove into the moving van or the U-Haul. What you paid for stuff has no relationship to what you can sell it for at a yard sale. How did you accumulate all this stuff? Everyone I know has a story...
In June of 2019, a moving van will transport my worldly possessions to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. My little family of cats and dogs will follow. Ottawa is Canada’s capital, Justin Trudeau’s city. He’s probably the only Canadian politician most non-Canadians know. ...
A small group of writers gathered at the local art gallery several months ago with the intention of writing memoirs. In those early meetings, the subject of whether to fictionalize those memoirs came up often. “Oh, I can’t tell that story. Aunt Mamie would kill me.” ...
I’ve got a novel with an editor and an EBook on writing suspense in the pipeline, waiting for something to happen to push it toward publication. It’s an uncomfortable place, jammed up in a bottleneck. Both these projects took a longer time than when I started...
You can write snappy dialogue even if you don’t consider yourself to be the most entertaining talker at the party. There are tips and tricks. Thought I’d excerpt a passage from my EBook in the “Writing Your First Mystery” series, just to let...
I started a memoir class. I lived until recently in a California mountain village with an unusual number of creative people. We’re close enough to the Los Angeles sprawl that “Industry” people can commute to auditions and jobs. The arts scene thrives here with two...
Imagine if you were given permission to buy whatever you liked on Arhaus, a home and outdoor site? Please note this is only an imaginary shopping experience. Sigh. Writers need a good desk or writing surface. Good lighting and a reference shelf or two for books. I’ve...
I knew that if I was going to write a novel, I was going to have fun writing crime fiction. It was fun getting back at the bullies and jerks, the gold-diggers, troublemakers, and narcissists in your life. I was going to make them pay as the villain in my story....
I moved to a mountain village in Central California where a small group of good-hearted people were battling a desperate overpopulation of unwanted cats. We started a chapter of the SPCA. Fostering cats, raising money, writing grants, starting a thrift store to...
