Poet Reporter
A different kind of reporting, through the eyes of a poet.
World-Building
If you’ve been reading me for a while you know I wrote my first who-dunnit in Fifth Grade. “Midnight… Murder?” was destined to be a hit. And as soon as I find it--likely in an attic somewhere--it still might be.
But that first story wasn’t all sunshine and roses. (Murder rarely is.) When my babysitter (today she would be considered my first beta reader) read the story and immediately knew who the killer was, I realized I needed to do a rewrite…
Yesterday’s Socks
I’ve waited tables in at least five U.S. States. In one of them, a restaurant owner told me his secret to getting through a split shift: Clean socks. A split is where you work lunch, go home for an hour, then return to work dinner. (A double, by contrast, is two eight-hour shifts with no break in between.)…
The Blue Binder
I have a few manuscripts piling up. Some projects aren’t quite finished yet; others need one last piece in order for their stories to come together.
Today I had an epiphany about one of these projects as I washed dishes. This particular manuscript (that I printed and placed in a blue binder so it can stare at me every time I enter my office)…
Drawing That Line
Did you ever sign up for something and almost instantly regret it? Like, maybe at the time you were thinking, “Well, my initial answer is no, but this might be a good learning experience for me…” Then you get roped in to a little more, and a little more, and before long it snowballs out of control. Suddenly everyone is telling you what you should do, and just because you don’t want to, what does that matter?
Emergence
Ah, emergence. This is my favorite word. I love it because it’s a bubbling up to the surface, a process of revealing something once concealed.
Not to be confused with emergency—no one likes those. But emergence and emergency come from the same Latin root. Emergence went the way of rising up, and coming to light, while emergency took the short, quick road to a sudden, unforeseen event…
Crabmeat Cheesecake
Memory portals. That’s the phenomenon where songs and movies can transport us back to a favorite time in our lives.
I love the movie Twister, likely for the memory portal it opens up for me. I’m talking about the original from 1996, not so much the new version. I was living in Myrtle Beach for the summer between college semesters, interning for a newspaper…
Champions Abound
The Olympic Games give us a couple magical weeks to find new heroes, reclaim old ones, and to relive the excitement of times when we were involved in something bigger than ourselves. It’s like being on vacation as a kid and jumping out of bed the moment you woke up because something big was going on and you didn’t want to miss any of it…
Champion Road
With the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl happening in the same weekend, everywhere we look we see champions. We’re surrounded by athleticism, grace, tenacity, and a never give up spirit…
Rise Above
When I was a kid, I thought I was Spiderman. I even had the web shooters for my wrists and used to run around catching household items in my webs. When I got a little older, I wanted to be Wonder Woman. I had a red cardigan with buttons that I would wear as a jacket outside when the Pennsylvania weather was decent…
Holiday Dinner
At a birthday this weekend, a bunch of us sat around the table with coffee and cake retelling old stories. These are the best days, when everyone is talking and laughing together. This time, though, instead of just following along, I found myself asking direct questions and trying to get the details right. I’ve heard many of these stories before, and it’s high time I did something about it…
Misfits and Christmas Letters: A How-To Guide
Sometimes you sit down to write and you have nothing to say. Other times you have so much on your mind that the words get jammed from your mind to your pen/keyboard. It happens whether you’re writing books, blogs, or Christmas letters…
Permanent Record Card
I ran into one of my high school teachers this weekend. Mr. E. was selling his books at the same event where I was selling mine. He introduced himself and I recognized his name, so we talked and caught up for a few minutes…
Placemat on a Dinosaur
Growing up, when my extended family got together we got into fights. We’d gather, set potluck dishes anywhere they’d fit, maybe even watch a little of the holiday parade on TV while we waited for everyone to show up. Then we’d line up to fill out plates and settle at various tables. And sometime before the end of dinner…
Frosting Face
The craft show atmosphere is a lot like an airport at Christmas time. There’s a lot of baggage and hustle and bustle, and big personalities that squabble over small things and quiet people who absorb it all with a pen in hand…
The Pilot’s Gamble: How It Ends
A man about my age overhears my arrangements and approaches. “You were on the Minneapolis flight that was cancelled? Me too. I’m renting a car from Wisconsin if you’d like to ride with me.”
I counter…
The Pilot’s Gamble: How It Starts
Here’s a story for you, about a flight I took from Pittsburgh to Rochester (Minnesota) that connected through Chicago. (As always, this was years ago. Years from now, I’ll tell stories from today. And I’ll still say, “Years ago…”)
Anyway, the story…