It’s fairly easy to take photos of people. Lump them together and snap the shutter, and you’ll easily capture an image of friends and/or family for all to see. You might have an occasional grump who doesn’t want a photo taken, but otherwise, there’s not a huge challenge. That’s not the case with puppies. Oh,…
Crossing boundaries while curing hunger a way to explore mystical side to life
Fantastic stories—they open up the mind and provide an escape like no other. For ages, people have been mystified by magic, by things not of this world and even the strange things that can be found on this world. It’s all about crossing boundaries. When I first started writing books, I wanted to cross boundaries….
LGBT community shamed enough without help from its own brethren
There’s a saying about lies, damned lies and statistics. Television ratings are statistics, and they’re believed to be the barometer to indicate whether a show is a success. On Monday, the miniseries “When We Rise,” which chronicles the rise of the LGBT movement, debuted on ABC. There were 2.94 million viewers who watched the program…
Developing story outlines doesn’t mean you have to stay within the lines
Last week, I talked about one of the rules of writing that I rarely follow—writing daily. This week, I’ll touch on outlines. Many writers depend on a written outline to serve as a sort of roadmap, a way to show how you’re going to go from point A to point B by way of the…
Maybe we need a ‘Day Without Police Officers’
As I was watching the news this morning, there was an item that reminded me of the Old West. I’m not talking about wagon trains and dysentery. I’m talking about an attempt to take the law in your own hands. What if we didn’t have police officers to keep our streets safe? What if we…
Writing every day not a way of life, but setting regular goals makes it easier
Some writers say you should write every day, set aside some time to write something whether it’s in a journal or crafting a poem or working on the latest chapter of your novel. Some use this mantra as a way to gently encourage vigilance in writing. Others believe that if you miss a day, it’s…
Bible more than what ‘LGBT News’ bogus description claims
The civil rights struggle has been a long one for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. To move forward and find common ground, it’s important to not be judgmental of the other side. For the longest time, religious organizations were the biggest impediment to equal rights when it came to marriage, adopting children, etc….
A visit to the animal house, or life on the lamb
Growing up on a farm, I was constantly exposed to animals. Dogs and cats roamed through the house. Chickens wandered through the yard, rabbits were resting in cages, and horses made their paths in the pasture. One thing I never saw when I was growing up were lambs in the house. Under most circumstances, they’re…
Scalping headline shows discrimination, ignorance still in our culture
It’s not always easy to come up with a headline for a newspaper story that will grab people’s attention and make them read the story. You know you’ve failed if the headline is interesting. If it’s racially offensive, however, that means you’ve really screwed up. The Antigo Daily Journal, a newspaper in northern Wisconsin, had…
Smunday! Smunday! Smunday! A condiment company’s bad attempt at a holiday
There’s just more than a week remaining until the 51st Super Bowl, a time-honored tradition where two football teams compete to be the best in the land—and companies spend big-time bucks to come up with the craziest commercials imaginable to get you to buy their products. If you’re living in Georgia or the New England…
Growing up in Chino Valley, you listened to what a little Birdie told you
When you go in to get your hair cut, you’ll tend to get someone who wants to chat. Sometimes, the discussion will be interesting, but there are times when you feel the barber is chatting just to fill the air with noise. When Birdie spoke, however, it was usually wise to pay attention. With the…
There’s more than one path to free speech
In America, we take freedom of speech very seriously. It’s what the country was founded on, and whenever anyone tries to tread on our civil liberties, we come out swinging. Many of those strike-backs are justified, but some are not. The Daily Courier, the daily paper that covered where I grew up in Chino Valley,…
Rural Roots and American Rainbows 