Janet wasn’t sure why life seemed so complicated these days. Maybe it had to do with the way the wind was always blowing, tossing her short gray hair this way and that, and reminding her of happier times before Chet died. Chet, her husband of 35 years, who woke up one day and said he…
Category: Stories
One Stop Christmas Shopping
Let me name a one stop gift buying store: IKEA. We went there today and, though I had to rush and not meander since I was with other people, I still found all sorts of great little buys for my Christmas list. I can’t go into exactly what I bought since my daughters tend…
A Film to Recommend: Flight
Today I went to see Denzel Washington in the movie Flight. I went with a friend who liked the movie well enough to see it for a second time. I went in cold, meaning I knew almost nothing about the film save that Denzel surely was an airline pilot given his “look” on the movie…
A Holiday Party
We just returned from our first holiday party. This was at Liz’s boyfriend Ron’s parents’ house in Hollywood. We had good food: chicken sausage lasagna and arugula and sun-dried tomato pizza and lots of good conversation. I only knew Ron, Liz, Rick and Cindy (Ron’s parents) when I arrived, but over the course of the…
Now I Am Really Finished!
You know when I said the Scholastic entries were all ready? Well, it turned out that they were not since one of my students ended up submitting five more entries. (This is a good thing.) However, between getting the Scholastic paper work done (read: ridiculous redundancies) and squeezing in a Fedex trip while working on…
Scholastic Submissions Ready!
It’s 11:47 pm and I am just finishing my Scholastic Artists and Writers submission packet for my students, grades 7 – 12. I will be sending this off tomorrow, right after one more student gets one more story to me before I head off to the FedEx office. I am happy to have this submission…
Our Flawed Selves
Today, while helping one of my students, I read several poems by Vievee Francis, who I have mentioned before on my blog. Her book Blue-Tail Fly is a series of persona poems about various figures ranging from before the Mexican American War until after the Civil War. One of those characters is Abraham Lincoln. One…
My 401st Post and a Big Thank You
Switch Sexes and You Have My Current Life This is my 401st blog post, which seems amazing to me. I began this process a little more than a year ago to see how 20 Minutes a Day of writing might be helpful to my writing process. I would say so far it’s proving to be…
Lincoln: the film
I just returned from seeing this film. All I can say is go see it. This is not a dumbed down version of this critical time in history. The language is formal as is fitting of the time and the political dynamics are much like today – filled with intrigue. Moreover, the gentile and wise…
Writing Frustrations or How Not to Write a Novel…
I have been struggling today with my new novel, working out the structure using John Truby’s The Anatomy of Story. It’s difficult because I started with an image and have written probably sixty or seventy pages of this novel, but realize that I have a big problem. My main character, a 17-year-old girl, is not…
20 Minutes a Day 