Find Your Writing Niche
Turn Horror into Humor
March 11, 2014I put an unusual spin on my first published story that earned a paycheck. It happened that our car was stolen—the third time this "horror" had happened to us over the years. Three different ...
Interviews: writers remember this
March 4, 20141) Sounding stupid 2) Omitting important facts 3) Being misquoted 4) Feeling obligated to include certain people As the interviewer, I’m annoyed ...
Johnny Gosch and Writing
December 10, 2013Dec. 1 at home after from spending Thanksgiving with our son and his family, I saw a program about Johnny Gosch. I remember Johnny's story because he's about the same age as our son, Steven. Johnny ...
Ten reasons why you should enter contests
November 22, 2013Entering contests is often a stressful endeavor. By the time you read the rules, go through your body of work, get the entry materials and complete all the necessary details, you may decide it's n ...
Digital Scrapbooking for the photographer/writer
August 22, 2013As a kid, I always liked photography. This interest has never waned. I belong to the C ...
Finding your writing niche
May 1, 2013One of the hardest parts of writing to publish is finding the place where you fit. I never thought of myself as a journalist, yet I've been writing feature stories for newspapers and magazines for d ...
Learning from Roger Ebert
April 7, 2013Listening to Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert review movies was a staple in our house when we lived in Flossmoor, IL. They both were brilliant reviewers, but I'm with MSNBC's Chris Hayes. I didn't enjoy ...
The dilemma: Which writers’ conferences to attend
January 24, 2013Since I began writing professionally, I've been attending writers' conferences as often as I can. "Writer's Digest" offered the first one I ever attended, and I remember meeting others who were as p ...