Note: This is a op-ed blended with personal narrative. It’s unapologetically 3200 words. I welcome your views and comments to further the conversation. 1. Are You a Punk or Outlaw?  The DIY movement has its roots in home improvement –…

This is a story about seeing beyond either/or. It’s a story about choosing friends and fulfillment and your readers while still forwarding your career. It’s a story about collaborative publishing. It’s a tale of two novels, too, coming out on…

We often hear about the importance of play when it comes to creating new things and ideas. John Cleese says, “If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play.” But what about creating a new life? A whole…

When William Faulkner won the Nobel Prize for Literature, he implored the then-younger, perhaps more jaded writers to exhibit this quality. The next year, John Steinbeck followed suit and called for it as well. Maxine Hong Kingston has called it…

Here’s what I’ve been hearing: Something in us aches to be free and brave to create what matters. To take risks to stand up and stand out. To tell the Story we know must be told. But time dogs us….

In the Tower of Babel that is publishing these days, it’s easy for authors to get distracted and to side-track their creative process in favor of over-thinking viable creative products.  The push to publish and profit can override the hardest fact. I’m offering…