A year of loss — On June 27, 2022, I lost Kathleen, my wife of 45 years, my love, my truest friend, my confidant, my constant companion, my writing mentor and editor, my motivator and champion, and on and on and on. Death has visited our family many times. When Kathleen was thirteen, her mother…

Train up or…well, just quit — “Go faster,” Joanne said. Faster? The trees were already screaming by in a blur, his legs ached, his breath burned in his chest. Roger couldn’t go any faster. He couldn’t even manage an objection. “Faster!” she cried. “Go! Go! Go!” Roger’s feet tangled, and he fell in a scraped, bruised…

Make your print look as professional as your writing — As a self-published author, you already know — or should — the importance of good writing, solid editing, and a great cover. You’ve done everything you can to make your book look and read like a professional product. Or have you? Did you pay attention to typography? Do you know…

How to use reader reactions to improve your writing — Whether to read your reviews is a vexing question. Many writers and publishers insist you shouldn’t, and they have a point. That volatile cocktail of glowing praise, lukewarm approval, and open hostility can make you sick with anxiety. Then again, hidden in the mix just might be some nutritive value…

Don’t look in the box — A light chop danced over the face of the Chesapeake. Wave peaks sparkled in the morning sun while darkness swirled in the troughs like entrances to the underworld. At the helm of his cargo boat, Chuck Boyd amused himself with that image. Water postmen, unlike their landbound colleagues, both delivered…

Odd, maybe, but carbon-neutral! — For one thing, you never saw grasshoppers as tall as your knees. Or made of copper. (Okay, two things.) Or with ornamental plating along their backs. (Three.) “Wings,” May Caldwell corrected. Wings. Right. Her brother Max shoved his hands in his pockets and tried not to shudder. …

A flash fiction wrong turn — “Launch is scheduled for an hour from now. We’ve got the best seats on the planet.” Karen gave her husband Bill a look of reproach. “We’re too far away,” she said. Bill set up the folding chairs and helped her into one. “Nonsense. We have a clear view across the…

How to grab your reader’s attention — Attention is fickle. From a sea of sensory input, it zeros in on the unusual, the out of place, the quick or strong, the beautiful or ugly. But once it figures out what it’s grabbed and finds in it neither danger nor reward, it lets go and seeks out its…