What do you think about euthanasia? For broken legged horses? Old, sick dogs and cats? Wounded birds? What about people? I’ve been thinking about this for months as I’ve been researching my new short story, “To Be, Or Not.” The moral dilemma of how to help people who are dying...
Which kind of reader are you? The kind who hates spoilers and is rabid about requiring “spoiler alerts” to protect you from accidentally discovering the ending or plot twists? Or are you the kind of reader who likes leaky plot spoilers. Or at least doesn’t mind learning about them. In...
What is Inspiration Anyway? A good working definition is: the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative. My Own Humongous Inspiration It was 1970. San Francisco. I was visiting the public TV station, KQED, to research an article about a female producing...
When I was a child, I was a big reader. I always had a book in my hand, even the heavy (at least to a tyke) tome of The Wizard of Oz. I loved that book so much, I took it everywhere with me-even the bathtub and toilet. Maybe, I...
I’ll admit it; I’m a fan of Rachel Maddow. I feel distress for her every time she shares that she spent the whole day working on other stories, and then, what do you know, a new story has become more important by airtime. And, yarg, all that work must be...
Steven Koch’s wisdom for writers is the same wisdom for all of us—honoring our natural dis-ease when we feel uncertain. It’s normal, part of all creative endeavors, all relationships. Life itself. The secret fear of fiction writers is that they are deficient, deficient in the ability to make up a...
I’m white; I care; and I’m learning. Talk to me. I want to share one of the things I’m learning about the depth, pervasiveness, and horror of racism. I have always hated any behavior that diminished or damaged the self esteem of another person. As a six-year-old, the first time...
When we are writing, we are usually alone, even if we are in a crowd of Starbuck sippers. That’s an example of physical aloneness. But there’s an even greater aloneness. It’s the aloneness that comes with having no way, and no one who can tell us what is “right” and...
Here is the false belief: “After I have more confidence, I’ll be able to do _______easily.” (Fill in the blank) That belief is the exact reverse order of cause and effect and a perfect example of “the tail wagging the dog,” and “the cart before the horse.” As a therapist,...
“I think the reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself.” ― Rita Mae Brown “Not being yourself is the worst form of self-disrespect.” ― Mokokoma Mokhonoana I’ve been a scared-y cat. I have been one of those people who has remained silent when I’ve seen and heard...
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