Where the Spirit Meets the Bone
I usually stream something when I’m on the treadmill, anything that will make the time pass quickly. Things I probably wouldn’t normally watch are perfect. Right now, I’m watching the old television program, Nashville. It’s basically a nighttime soap opera with some fairly good country music. A lot of twist and turns in a plot…
Read MoreShining a Light: One Writing Teacher’s Observations
Last Sunday, for the second consecutive year, Cathy and I attended our local high school’s spring musical. The production was excellent, but what struck me most, as it did last year, was how I got a little teary-eyed at the curtain call because I was thinking about what it must be like for parents to…
Read MoreMFA Thesis Defense Season
We’re in the middle of MFA thesis defenses now, so it seems like an opportune time to re-run this post from six years ago. It’s MFA thesis defense season here at Ohio State, which always reminds me of my own MFA experience at the University of Arkansas. So much of my education as a…
Read MoreIn Favor of Anger
Cathy and I were on our way home from the grocery store yesterday, when we noticed a man who lives in our neighborhood on his motorcycle. He was obviously having trouble with the bike. It was sputtering and stalling, and he was delaying the traffic behind him. We were at a red light, waiting to…
Read MoreBeyond the Headlines: Novels Based on True Stories
I’m still working on the first draft of this new novel. It’s based on a true story, and that’s given me the main plot points of the narrative. There’s so much to learn, though, about the characters and what might or might not be possible for them. One of the things I like most about…
Read MoreOur House
Nine years ago today, Cathy and I closed on our house. It was a new start for us. We’d found our way back to each other after thirty-four years apart. We’d both left unhappy marriages and had fallen in love all over again. Over the past nine years, this house—our house—has been filled with so…
Read MoreA Writer’s Spring Miscellany
The daffodils and the forsythia are in bloom. Here, in central Ohio, the temperature is supposed to reach seventy-five degrees. Don’t get too comfortable, though; a storm is coming. Tomorrow the high will be forty-seven, and Tuesday, we’ll only reach twenty-seven. So it is in March here in the Midwest as we yo-yo our way…
Read MoreGetting Back to the Writing
Cathy and I got back last night from the annual conference of the Associated Writing Programs, which explains the lateness of this post. Today, I’m back to work on this novel I’m trying to write. When I look at the last thing I wrote before leaving for the conference, I read this: He told us.…
Read MoreWhat Do Your Characters Love?
It amazes me to think I’ve been maintaining this blog for eighteen years. I resisted it so much at first, but my web designer convinced me it was important, and gradually I came to love it. I like to think it’s been helpful to more than a few of you. Still, there are times when…
Read MoreLet Them Talk: Dialogue in First Drafts
I’m working on the first draft of a new novel set in 1920 in my native southeastern Illinois. At that time, Prohibition created an opportunity for bootleggers which, of course, led to violence as most illegal operations tend to do. That’s only one part of the book I’m trying to write. The KKK was prominent…
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