It’s not easy being an artist

The summer is winding down, and Jessica and I are at the coffee shop. I have given up any idea that I will get any work done here, because she will want to hang out, which means asking a lot of questions about how things work and watching all of the people. She asks for…

There was a time when all the editors I worked with knew I was a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and so they were all slightly afraid of me. I miss those days. ### My collection of travel stories, Travels with Jessica, is now available! Kindle and paperback here; other ebook formats here. And…

A friend of mine who is forty-something recently had a baby. This is the third child she has welcomed into her life; the other two are school-aged. I met her for coffee recently, and had the chance to hug her sweet new baby and marvel at how calm and relaxed the new mama was. My…

So I promised myself that I wouldn’t overschedule my time this summer,  because I wanted to have plenty of opportunity to finish a handful of creative projects I’ve been working on since forever. This is how I thought it would go:   But if you have been following along, you know that it has gone…

A couple weeks ago, an old friend from graduate school emailed me and said he’d be in town and would I be able to meet him for lunch? I said sure, and then I counted out the years and had one of those moments:       Twenty years since I’d last seen him!  …