Stuck on the Loom
December 20, 2025So, I’ve been weaving this virtual tapestry. It’s complicated–threads of different colors and textures. Ribbons and yarns. Beads and shells. I’ve worked my way to the 75% mark of my Young Adult novel where the action presses on to the climax. Time to get the vague notions I had for the denouement to come together in fine detail. I’ve got so many knots to work through. Every character has a point of view. Their actions come from something they want. They are complicated people. As I take a close look at what I planned to write, I find dropped stitches…
The Cruelty of Fiction Writers
My teen boy protagonist is about to suffer. I am going to see that he does. As written right now, Jack’s rented horse, Thor, causes some inconvenience. But inconvenience does not make the compulsion to turn another…
If We Can Admire Dutch Painting
I’m reading a poem a day, which is like working through the strangest Spotify playlist, curated by someone with curious taste. Some do not appeal, some are incomprehensible, but a few are gems that become my own…
A Joy for Ever
As I rode my bike this morning I knew I was experiencing that rare gift: a perfect day. These are the long idyllic days of Vermont, when the sun saunters up the vast parabola and down to…
Telling a Better Story
I am typing at my desk at the Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference, in Black Mountain, North Carolina. (If any bad guys are reading this, I’ll have you know I left behind the forester. Don’t let…
8 reasons to keep a five-year memory book
Nine years ago I started my first one-year journal. I’m grateful for eight reasons. 1. Confining thoughts to four, five, or six tight lines requires the writer to be succinct and brief, a habit that has benefitted…
