December 2015

There was always something a little depressing in high school and college about telling anyone I was a writer, because they would always want to know, what have you written? The question should not have been a stumper, not tough, but it was, even though I had written lots of things, many beautiful beginnings: two […]

I often encounter on-line writing advice that urges writers to bid good-bye forever to seemingly innocuous words. The advice-givers promote getting rid of a word like “very, “then,” or “that” as a magical way to transform prose into leaner, more interesting, and clearer copy. “Look! Just stop using this one word, and you will be

When I was in tenth grade English, Hemingway deceived me. The novel The Old Man and the Sea was super thin and, glancing at the first page, I found language so simple it was almost child-like. From that information, I drew two wrong conclusions about my required reading: First, that I was bound to enjoy

Most of the time I forget I’m bipolar. Or at least, I don’t give it much thought. I don’t get up and think, “Huh. I am feeling extra bipolar today. All these moods.” I’m a writer first; bipolar is a far second. Mostly I think about writing. How can I do it better? How can

I have come a long way. Though the date of my birth is uncertain, I began around 13 billion years ago; or so I am told. My birth was violent, they say, but there was no sound, and if there had been I would not have heard it, because I had no ears. At first