I am leaving home soon to head into the mountains, alone, to finish my first novel. It’s something like a dream. I’ve been writing a story called Minor King for about a year. It’s slow going. I’m about 20,000 words in, and have found that when you work full-time and have an active family life, that it’s a little hard to find the time to sit still and let the muses take over your heart and brain. I’m not making…
Since joining Twitter and Facebook in 2008, I’ve enjoyed observing how people communicate in these spaces. I’m not just talking about sharing cool links – but rather the big, important stuff. The stuff of life. Personal challenges. Victories. Heartbreak. Joy. How a person shares these things (or not) says everything about them. If you look closely enough, you can see the essence of a person by observing what they share here. Or don’t share. As a writer, in particular a…
“Daddy, daddy, I won an iPhone 5!” she said as she ran into my office. “I was on this website, and something popped up that said that I won! Me!” And thus began the deliberate chopping away at the legs of childhood enthusiasm and naiveté. I explained to my nine-year-old how there are some bad people in the world who only want to glean personal information to sell to other people and companies. Her bottom lip quivered and tears bubbled…
I took Cozette to Target for a watch on Friday. She picked one that’s mostly rubber and mostly white, but for some salmon highlights around the face. It’s digital. I tried to convince her to get a watch with hands, but she wanted none of that. At first I was like, ‘Child, you’re getting a watch with a face and hands so that you can learn to tell time the traditional way because…’ and then I stopped. Who am I…
There’s a lot that I don’t understand about the idea of religion. I was raised Southern Baptist. We were big Jesus people – the red letters in the bible were always the most important. But I didn’t understand most of it and would ask questions that adults did not have answers for. They’d just say, “That’s how it is.” and “You’ve just got to believe.” and “Because it’s in the bible.” It was confusing. I mean, I believed that God…
I used to know a guy named Bump. He was a metal worker in my dad’s sheet metal shop. Bump was more country than anyone I’d ever known. He was missing the distal phalanges on every finger of his left hand, but it didn’t matter; he wielded a welding torch as well as anyone, but preferred wielding a fishing rod. Dude could fish. Bump had shoulder-length sandy blond hair with an uneven, permanent scruff on his face. He always wore…
