Is There Too Much Apologizing Going On?

There’s an interesting phenomenon in the blogospere and in social media. It looks something like this: “I’m sorry I haven’t posted in a while.” “I’m sorry for posting so often.” “I apologize for the political post.” “Sorry for all the book posts.” And on and on and on. I noticed the first example in blogs…

Sometimes, You Need A Win

If you know me in real life, you know I go to Starbucks a lot. A lot. My kids attend Taekwondo classes across the street from the Starbucks location I frequent the most, and they pretty much live at Taekwondo, especially around tournament time. The baristas know my name. I gave them copies of The Seventh…

The First Thing I Wrote

I participate in a Twitter chat called #TweepWriter. It’s a community where writers answer a different question every day throughout the month. Today was day 20, so this was the question: What was the first thing (poem, short story, book, blog post, etc) you ever wrote about? I think I misunderstood the question because I…

The Problem With “Try”

When I was in high school band (yes, I was just that cool), the director of the brass line would sometimes lead practices, and one of his favorite things to say was this: He said it in a Yoda voice and I didn’t really get it at the time, other than it was a Yoda…

5 Things Authors Wish Readers Knew

When I was just a reader, meaning I didn’t create my own word babies, I didn’t have a clue what went into making books or how my being a reader mattered to anyone. Now that I’m on both sides of the fence, the picture is much clearer – and I try to be a “better”…

When Patience Pays Off

I’m penning this post at the end of a long and irritating day. What should have been a three-hour event ended up being an eight-hour ordeal. But this story isn’t really about me. It’s about my kids. Both of my sons train in Taekwondo. They attend classes three times per week, and they participate in extra…