Blog
WRITING
Your sad story is boring and it’s not your fault
Somewhere around chapter four of a manuscript I read last month, I hit a personal story and slid right off it. I'm telling you, it was pure Teflon! Nothing was wrong with the story, per se. The sentences were clean, grammatically correct, which, trust me, is a plus....
The word that makes me want to set a manuscript on fire
The other day I got on a call with a coach I've known for years. Smart woman. Built a real business, wrote a real book once, the hard way, the way that takes eighteen months and costs you a little piece of your soul. This time she'd written a new one in a week and a...
The book that nobody picked up (and it was free)
Last weekend I was at a conference for book promotion and marketing. Which means I spent two days in a room full of book people — authors, publishers, marketers, the kind of crowd that shows up to the airport with three paperbacks in their carry-on just in case. And...
You finished the book. Now cut the snow blocks.
I'm going to tell you about the worst nap I never took. Stick with me — this is about your manuscript, I promise. A few years back Walt and I were on Denali, in Alaska, five days into the climb. Eighty-pound pack on my back. Dragging a sled behind me with another...
READING
My daughter’s fancy school gave me one thing worth keeping
Long ago, the private high school my daughter attended had a wonderful yearly tradition. At the beginning of summer, they'd mail a reading list--a compilation of each teacher's favorite books--to the house. Now, I'm sure the design was to encourage students to read...
My mother has no idea what’s wrong with her (and she’s fine with that)
On Saturday I called my mother to check on her. She's getting up there in age, and she'd been flat on her back for a couple of weeks. Zero appetite. Which, if you know my mother, is the part that should worry you. The woman has never met a casserole she couldn't...
I once tried to hire a Navy Seal to babysit
Decades ago, back when my kids were just edging into adolescence, my best friend was a fellow single mother. She played cello in an orchestra, which meant she worked nights — orchestras don't tend to perform at lunchtime — and I often kept her son at my place when she...
Why I just lost two hours to a vegan TikTok (and what it taught me about your book)
The other night Walt sent me an Instagram reel of a Korean American woman making army stew while she told a story about her father, as a teenager, running for his life from police who'd just gunned down student protesters in 1960. Her dad's takeaway from a near-death...
LIFE
My greatest strength is quietly ruining me
If you attended Deep Write Saturday, then you know all about writing prompts, which I offered up in case you didn’t know which direction to go. Writing prompts are a great way to unstick yourself, particularly when you’re trying to work linearly. I decided to take my...
My mother has no idea what’s wrong with her (and she’s fine with that)
On Saturday I called my mother to check on her. She's getting up there in age, and she'd been flat on her back for a couple of weeks. Zero appetite. Which, if you know my mother, is the part that should worry you. The woman has never met a casserole she couldn't...
The morning we got lost and found out who we were
It was Good Friday, roughly 6:30 in the morning, the kind of cold spring day that makes you question your life choices. Three of us — all marathon running buddies, all colleagues at the same chemical company in the next town over — laced up our shoes in a parking lot...
The half-life of relevance (and why panicking won’t save you)
Walt and I have this conversation probably once a month. Who was that woman — the one who wore purple and taught people to sell from the stage? Where'd she go? We genuinely cannot remember her name. And here's the thing: a few years ago, she was everywhere. Speaking...
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