Essays
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The Life and Times of a Not-Starving, Starving Artist
Only a certain number of artists are significantly wealthy, and I am definitely not one of them. When I refer to “artists” I mean people who produce art in the visual realm, in music, in performances, and with the written word, of course. My strengths primarily lie in the written word, but I like to dabble in visual art as well. While I’ve sold my words, I have never sold any of my visual art, though I have given projects as gifts. I’ve never offered it for sale. I imagine the results of doing so would be very similar to my venture out into the publishing world—supplemented by my day…
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Taking Back the “Nerd” Label
I’ve been pondering this “nerd” topic for several months, trying to decide how to best express my thoughts. Having a son in middle school makes the topic relevant now more than ever. Elementary and middle school ages are tough for kids. Junior and Senior high school are tough for kids. That is—these stages are tough for some kids, the nerds.
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How I became a novelist in twelve (easy) steps
There are steps for everything these days, so I reverse-engineered what I did to become a novelist and put the process into 12 steps. The steps were easy sometimes, and other times, they caused some tears. The end result was worth all the effort. Step 1: I read a lot Without reading, what’s the point of writing? Reading everything I could get my hands on when I was a kid developed my love of reading and also made me think about some things I would like to read that were not available. I didn’t just read fiction. I read about the art of writing to learn everything I could, and…
