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What’s In A Name?
One of the first critiques of an early draft of my debut novel was that the names of the characters seemed random, like they’d been pulled from a hat. The comment surprised me. You mean there’s another way? The right name is a beautiful thing. That’s why parents spend so much time thinking about what…
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Privacy and the Rapid Pace of Change
I often wonder what a visitor from the past would think about modern life. Perhaps because of shared ties to Kentucky, Daniel Boone and Abraham Lincoln are almost always my imaginary time travelers. What would they think about supermarkets, central air conditioning, automobiles, televisions, and airplanes? What would impress them most? In the century between 1765 when…
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My Holiday Series
I had no idea when I wrote Until Thanksgiving that a prequel would follow. The idea of writing a novel was intimidating enough — never mind a series. But something about Philip Potter, a supporting character, grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. I wanted to know more about him. Readers loved him too, and shared my…
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Anniversary Give Away Contest
A year ago in August, Dreamspinner Press offered me a contract for my first novel. To celebrate, I’m giving away autographed copies of Until Thanksgiving. How many? I have no idea. Maybe I’ll send a copy to everyone who enters. That’s what I’d like to do, anyway. But with my luck, the offer would go…
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Gone, But Not Forgotten
I lost my father a year ago today. This picture was taken a few weeks before he died, during my last visit with him. In memory of a man I never really understood, here’s my post from that fateful day: My father passed away this morning. My sister called me to tell me the news.…
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My Magazines
In college, I majored in consumer studies and family resource management. Rather than a textbook, many of my professors compiled packets of articles from academic journals and weekly news magazines that we had to purchase from Kinko’s. Nowadays they make this kind of information available to students online. All the weekly news magazines were represented…
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Keep Getting Better
I hear from a lot of people, gay guys mostly, who write and hope to be published one day. When they ask for my advice, I always reply with the same question: What are you doing to improve your writing? No matter how good you are, you can always get better. A wealth of excellent…
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The Evolution of a Writer
I wrote my first novel using a technique known as pantsing — as in, flying by the seat of my pants. With nary an outline nor character sketch, I wrote chapter one of Until Thanksgiving — then known as Addicted — with no idea what chapter two would be about, and so on, until I’d…
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My Vinyl Collection
I played music I can’t remember now on a portable record player when I was little. Rather than the traditional black vinyl, these ten-inch records came in colors like Play-Doh magenta and yellow — neither shades you’d ever actually select for any purpose. They may have even played at 78 RPMs. The children’s recordings got…
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An Old Fashioned Fourth of July
To celebrate Independence Day, I looked for posts I’d done in the past about the Fourth of July family reunions that were so much a part of my childhood. I couldn’t find the posts. So instead, I’m running that chapter from my never-to-be-published memoir, Glass Houses. For background, Mom is the baby of eight Glass…