Penny and I have been participating in a longitudinal study on stress and asthma since she was in utero, and we’ve been sending samples of Penny’s hair and nails ever since. Today we did her year-seven samples, and she got paid $60 for sending in a lock of her hair and ten fingernails. Nick, of … Read moreIn Search of Inner Peace
My parents have a patio that backs up against a small pond, surrounded by a forest preserve along the opposite side from where I’m sitting. It’s pretty, lush, and verdant (green!). The air conditioning unit just kicked on, and it’s drowning out the sounds of distant birds squawking (I haven’t learned my bird calls yet) … Read moreMetaphor, Figurative Language, and Silos
I brought my family to Central Florida to temporarily live with my parents for a lot of reasons. One big reason was for day to day help with remote schooling my kids. It looks like this move is going to pay off in a big way. Last weekend all four adults gathered around a whiteboard … Read moreAdventures in Time Management
I’d never been so happy to sit and watch Penny play soccer as I was the other day. The rain from earlier in the afternoon brought with it fresh tropical air and a blue-streaked sky, and it was good to sit back and watch the kids do normal kid things. The league has taken great … Read moreHandling Character Descriptions A La Tom Wolfe
We arrived in good spirits (and making good time) in Central Florida on Friday. The sun was blazing, and the sky, clouds, and grass seem to exist in bumped-up saturation compared with Texas. While I grew up here, and eventually became a young adult, I couldn’t wait to leave home. So much so that when … Read moreHow to Handle the Passage of Time in Writing
Today is the last day of projects at my house. The crew replacing many of my windows have been here since 10 am and are now attempting to replace the glass on the sliding glass door where my darling dog, Poppy, left hundreds of tiny scratches. Since the door is open, rather than air condition … Read moreThe Zoom and the Pan in Descriptive Writing
As I work on my re-write of my manuscript, a bunch of things are clicking that hadn’t before, which is very encouraging for me! I think I have figured out how to hack into my main characters’ made-up souls to make them believable and interesting. Of course, one thing is sketching them out on my … Read moreHow to Handle Minor Characters and Groups in Fiction