REPENTANCE & MLK, JR.
"It may well be that we will have to repent in this generation. Not merely for the vitriolic words and the violent actions of the bad...
MAKING ROOM . . .
After my first YA-novel, Honeysuckle Holiday, was released I, with deep humility, slid it next to my favorite novel, To Kill a...
. . . A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS
In addition to the melodic list of favorite things that Maria sings about in The Sound of Music (which just happens to be one of my...
AHH, THE GIFTS OF THE SEASON!
As I watch the first snowflakes fall outside my window, I am gifted the first gift of the season. And it's a most treasured one. And...
WRITING & REMEMBERING
It's Thanksgiving. It's a chilly 35 degrees outside. It's sunny -- both in my heart and in this colorful Appalachian region. And, I'm...
"PETIT A PETIT, L'OISEAU FAIT SON NID."
"Little by little, the bird builds its nest." As a writer, I return to this French proverb so frequently that it is as familiar to me as...
THE WRITING LIFE: JUMP SHIP OR STAY THE COURSE
Over the past several months, conversations with friends have been bound by a common thread: whether or not to jump ship or stay the...
WRITERS' WRITERS: PENNING LETTERS
"The proper definition of a man is an animal that writes letters." --Lewis Carroll Whenever, as a writer, I arrive at the point where the...
THE SEED OF A STORY
Much like a gardener planting seeds in the ground, authors' story ideas germinate from many sources, from the intentional mixing of ideas...
HONEYSUCKLE HOLIDAY & ITS "UNCOMFORTABLE" CHANT
Nationally syndicated columnist and winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary, Leonard Pitts, Jr., reminded us last fall when To...
