Wild Mushrooms, Wild Minds
On this Easter Sunday, the day Christ is supposed to have risen from the dead, I receive a text from my cousin who says one of her best childhood Easter memories is hunting for morel mushrooms in my uncle’s woods. Her mother (my aunt) was particularly good at finding the highly valued fungi, so today…
Read MoreCan’t Never Did Nothing: What to Do When Our Stories Die
Cathy and I made a little garden today—lettuce and spinach and radishes. Each spring, when we break the crust and work up the soil, I think of my mother and father and the hours they spent in their own gardens. They had a large one behind our house in town and another one in the…
Read MoreA Sensitive Boy
My wife Cathy and I went to a production of Mamma Mia! at the local high school today. We didn’t know what to expect, but the performance turned out to be excellent. I was a little surprised—after all, high school musicals can be uneven—but what really stunned me was how emotional I got, not only…
Read MoreLooking Back: Revision Tips
Cathy and I were driving to our friends’ house for a meal—we were supposed to bring dessert—when it came to me that I’d better ask her if she’d remembered to bring the cake she’d made. She said. . .well, I’ll let you imagine what she said when she realized the cake was still in its…
Read MoreHigher Education under Fire
It’s MFA thesis season here at Ohio State University, which means I have eight manuscripts to read. If it sounds like a lot of reading, it’s because it is. I spent the last two days reading a student’s very good novel, and now I feel like I need a rest—well, at least my eyes could…
Read MoreEaster Flowers
The daffodils are in bloom. When I was a boy on our farm, we called them Easter flowers. The north side of our front yard was full of them—big, lovely, yellow, double blooms. I left them there when I sold the farm, and, with them, I thought I was leaving behind the footsteps of all…
Read MoreAfter the Reading: Faith Restored (Reprinted)
(Since it’s spring break here at Ohio State University, I’ve decided to take a bit of a rest. I’m reprinting this old post, and I’ll see you next week with a new one. Be well, everyone.) Here’s a simple story. I go to an independent bookstore in a Midwestern town of around 14,000 people…
Read MorePast, Present, Future: Layering in Narrative
I recently watched the Robert Zemeckis film Here. The film’s nonlinear structure tells the story of a single plot of land and the people who lived on it over a wide span of years. From time to time, the screen subdivides into multiple panes, so we see events from different time periods seeming to occur…
Read MorePeople Come and People Go: Narratives of Arrivals and Departures
Cathy and I were having breakfast this morning at one of our favorite local restaurants when a little boy’s head popped up above the partition separating our table from a booth on the other side. He was, as we would soon learn, “not three,” which we understood to mean he was two. He and Cathy…
Read MoreStrategies for Finding Empathy for Our Characters
Last week, I posted about the importance of having empathy for our characters even those who are less that admirable. This week, I want to continue thinking about exactly how we can find that empathy. Here are a few strategies: Be a matchmaker. When I was just beginning to work on my novel, River of…
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