Well, it's finally happened. I thought I'd escaped it, but apparently I haven't. It caught up with me just when things quieted down a little bit in my life. Just my luck! What am I talking about? I've stumbled into a horrible case of writer's block, of course. It's been going on for days! I've tried everything. First, I just sat and stared at the computer screen at the scene where I'd last left my characters. But nothing happened. They didn't seem interested in communicating

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." -- attributed to, among others, John Lennon (in "Beautiful Boy") Several years ago, my dad celebrated his 70th birthday at a party thrown by his wife and his kids (one of whom is me, of course). We offered lots of dessert -- my dad does love his lemon meringue pie and Watergate cake -- punch, munchies and conversation. As I looked around the room at the people visiting with each other, my dad sat next to me a

Before he passed away a few years ago, I visited my 90-year-old great-uncle once a week in his assisted living apartment. He was at that stage of life where he didn't want to do anything but watch TV. Well, that and complain that no one ever visits him (which isn't true) or that he'd rather be living anywhere else but Texas (which probably isn't true either). His memory failed him often, and I know he got very frustrated over that fact. One day, we disagreed over whether he w

... with some rather significant help for the structure and melody from a favorite Christmas carol! We composed this ditty on the way home from school some years ago, and it escapes my memory why we thought it was a good idea. Still, we enjoyed thinking of fun things from school. On the First Day of School On the first day of school, my teacher gave to me … a book in a purple backpack. On the second of school, my teacher gave to me … two lucky pencils and a book in a purple b

I used to believe that descriptions in books were a waste of the reader’s time. I’d think, “Get to it, already. I want to know what happens!” I’d skip entire passages — and sometimes whole pages — in my eagerness to reach the action. I even felt somewhat smug in my ability to get the gist of a book in a short amount of time. After all, I knew the important points, right? Wrong. For years, I’ve been saving baby clothes, athletic jerseys, and various odds and ends from the kids

I just rewatched (thanks, Amazon Prime) a favorite show of mine from a few years ago. Perhaps you watched it, too? It was called Chuck, and it was a mix of several genres:  comedy, spy caper, romance, and pop culture love. Pretty weird, right? For some reason, it seemed to work, even birthing a creative fan protest (using Subway sandwiches, no less!) that ended up saving the show from almost certain cancellation its fourth season. Although I thought the last season deteriorat

I don't know about other writers, but I do a bunch of research before I name my characters. First I google the name I've chosen to be sure he/she isn't a famous artist, a reviled terrorist, my next door neighbor (whose name I've decided to use as the villain of the story), or my long-lost aunt/uncle. This process isn't as easy as it sounds. Since the advent of Twitter, Facebook and the myriad social media sites out there that list names, I can assure you that, if I can think