Everyone in the house was sleeping… And I should have been. I had already worked 8 hours at my job in Chicago – plus 4 hours commuting from the suburbs. For more than 15 years, I gave our three sons my undivided attention from the time I arrived home until…

Deadlines can be intimidating, especially if you’re a procrastinator like me. But perhaps you’re writing your first book, so your only deadline is self-imposed. My advice? Set one and keep it sacrosanct. True, only you will know if you miss your deadline, so tell someone and ask them to hold…

The books below (in alpha order by author) represent a fraction of those available. You could read one per day for the rest of your life and not exhaust the resources. But, in my opinion, these are the best books on writing available. Some require wearing your big kid pants…

The late psychologist Abraham Maslow believed that certain universal human needs must be met for anyone to be satisfied and motivated to meet their other needs: Physical: food, water, sleep, shelter, and clothing. If one’s energy is devoted entirely to survival, his focus on anything else is diminished. Safety: once…

Sin #1: Starting With Throat-Clearing First impressions are everything, so what do I mean by throat-clearing when it comes to writing? Anything that delays the real beginning. Your job is to get on with things, not spend pages describing settings or setting up scenes or unloading a dump truck of backstory. Rather, thrust…

It doesn’t sound fair. It doesn’t seem right. But here’s a dirty little secret of the writing life you need to hear: Any veteran editor can tell within two minutes whether they’re going to reject your manuscript. It takes longer to decide whether they’ll recommend it for purchase, of course…

An elderly woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which she carried across her neck. One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long…

A messy messy house is not a happy place to live, it has negative energy and people who live there will be affected. Disorder gets in the way and stagnates, making it very difficult to continue on our ways. The stress of searching for stuff causes anxiety, depression and confusion…

A brief history of the rise and fall of the media giant and the ensuing Netflix takeover. For almost two decades, Blockbuster was the go-to spot on Friday nights for families around the world. At its peak, it had 9,000 stores. However, by 2010, it had gone bankrupt. So, what…