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Birth of a Catch Phrase
For the first fifty years of my life, becoming a published author wasn’t something I dreamed about. In truth, I never even considered the possibility. To younger me, authors were like movie stars, professional athletes, and rock stars — ethereal creatures blessed with a sublime talent. Aspiring to something so lofty just wasn’t practical. Now…
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The Party’s Over
The party I call my recovery from hernia repair is drawing to a close. The surgery was a week ago today, and aside from an occasional twinge, I’m feeling no pain. And no, the absence of pain is not the result of Percocet. I quit taking them Saturday night. I planned to wean myself off…
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My Miraculous Recovery
Yesterday I had surgery — inguinal hernia repair. The operation went well. I feel great today and am getting around fine with little to no pain. In fact, I feel so good, the biggest challenge of my recovery is going to be keeping myself from doing too much. I had my pre-op appointment at the…
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Taking My Time
People often say they’re impressed by my productivity. I may look more productive, but as a single man, I don’t have to deal with a lot of the stuff that keeps other people busy. Outside of work, my time is my own, to do with as I please. That doesn’t mean my life is better…
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Dealing with Rejection
When it comes to writing, practice makes perfect. The more I write, the better my writing gets. The improvement comes in terms of both the mechanical aspects–grammar, punctuation, and vocabulary–and in my ability to create a good story. In its current form, Glass Houses, the very first book I penned back in 2010, will never get…
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My Next Project
As a university employee, I’ve been off the week between Christmas and New Year’s since the mid-1980s. Depending on where the holidays fall, I usually add a few days to one end or the other to extend the break even longer. It’s never enough time off, and it always goes by too fast. In the…
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The Devil is in the Details
Over the weekend, I finally finished writing After Christmas Eve. Finding time to write had been the biggest obstacle–never mind that I had loose ends all over the place and no earthly idea how to tie them all together. I had time to write this weekend and along the way, figured out how to end the…
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Channeling My Inner Romance Novelist
Yesterday I wrote the first draft of what may be the last chapter of After Christmas Eve. The ending has always been a little hazy in my mind. Because the story continues, part of the challenge is deciding where to stop. I decided when I sat down to write it that the last chapter would…
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How to Write a Novel
If you ask me, there are two basic ways to write a novel. You can either make it up as you go along–a style known as pantsing, as in flying by the seat of one’s pants. Or you can plan the story out from start to finish and then start writing. No doubt there are endless…
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Stressed!
Okay. I admit it. I’m stressed out. My upbeat, positive attitude has helped me to cope. But the quantity of major life events I’ve experienced this year has just about depleted the sunshine I’ve managed to set aside for dark and cloudy days. In graduate school I remember reading studies about a stress scale that…