Writing a first draft is the process of creating a medium, like a sculptor selecting a stone slab for a statue.  We conjure our first drafts, our blocks of stone, from thoughts and ideas then cut from these our stories, essays, poems, or informative writings.  Understanding the nature of first drafts prevents us from struggling to conjure... Continue Reading →

An old witch living in the woods cursed me as a child.  The woman dressed in black stepped from her dilapidated cabin and waved her crooked staff.  “For playing in my forest, you shall forever confuse the words “who” and “whom” in complex sentence structures.” A friendly grammarian-sage named David Bender broke the curse years later with... Continue Reading →

I possess two writing personalities, one for my writing career and another for my role as a teacher. These craft suggestions come from my work communicating with teaching colleagues, students, parents, and student teachers-- those less interested in my poetic stylings than in getting information quickly and clearly. Here are seven tips to tighten your... Continue Reading →

Nancy Sakaduski of Cat and Mouse Press sent me a list of edits and revisions for my short story Moonwalker scheduled to appear this spring in the anthology Beach Pulp. She took great care making changes to improve the story’s flow, language, and formatting, like reducing the number of hyphens and phrases offset by em... Continue Reading →