Road Tripping

Traveling is in my blood. When I was a kid, my elder sister begged to stay home alone instead of going on family vacations. I was the other extreme. I took time off work and would quit a job instead of miss a family vacation. My parents showed my brother and I most of the […]

How do you know if it works?

You test. Then you examine. Then test again. My email went through. Now to try a random blog post. Please comment to let me know if you received it. Thank you so much for being my guinea pigs. And not getting crabby. (This guy was harassed by Wryly on the Texas beach.)

Just Write!

I recently read Julia Cameron’s book Right to Write. If you are familiar with her name but can’t place her, she wrote The Artist’s Way. I love her writing because she not only encourages creativity but also provides concrete steps on how to be more creative, no matter your medium. She introduces writing as a […]

The Beauty of Big Bend

If there’s a place to visit, I tend to want to go. Gotta see what’s around that next corner, right? So when the opportunity came up to go camping in Big Bend National Park, I jumped. My aunt and uncle spoke volumes of the beauty of the area. But I was a kid then and […]

Four Things I Learned From My First Research Trip

1. Archivists and museum docents are worth their weight in gold, but they don’t know everything you want to know. I visited Peterborough, Ontario, to research the Peter Robinson settlers that emigrated from Ireland to the territory of Upper Canada in 1825. I visited the Peterborough Museum and Archives in hopes of gaining some idea […]

Spring Adventures

Spring treks in Texas are similar to adventures in other parts of the country, but maybe slightly more dangerous. I was just recently told that Lake Mineral Wells State Park has a proliferation of rattlesnakes. We saw none on this visit. At other state parks, copperheads, water moccasins, and alligators keep adventurers on their toes. […]

Challenges

Apparently, I like to provoke people. Poke and twist, I call it. Not one to back down from conflict, I’m even known to argue ideas I don’t believe to find out what people really think and to provoke them to think through their ideas and thoughts. Having teen-age sons, I now receive this behavior, much […]

Feel the Emotion

I have many years of experience writing for newspapers and magazines or private business. Just the facts, don’t let your emotions get too involved, show don’t tell. Storytelling is not a skill I learned in J-school. I certainly did not learn how to structure anything as long as a novel. I think 3,000 words is […]