Things that make me smile

After I went on a lengthy rant recently, the friend I inflicted it upon pointed out, “Cluelessness can be cured.”  My new mantra.

A short interlude: parenting

“You’re being a pain in the ask,” my daughter Jessica tells me, and for a horrified moment, I think I’m going to burst into laughter.  That’s not exactly how the phrase goes, of course, and there’s something endearing about my young daughter’s serious face as she says it.  She’s trying to resist putting away her…

Well said

In remembered rapture: the writer at work, author bell hooks says, “It takes critical vigilance not to be swept away by all the forces of materialist greed that encourage any writer eager to be more successful to dispense with integrity in the interest of making the big deals.”  She says, “Young writers . . .…

How to: Finding story angles

A while back, an editor asked me to pitch some yoga ideas to him.  I sat scratching my head (in the lotus position), then called on a colleague for assistance.  Linda Formichelli, author of The Renegade Writer, helped me out.  I thought the process she described for coming up with angles was excellent, and with her…