Today is one of those days. It should be glorious. Today is a day I look forward to for months, the first day of my favorite writing conference, and this year I’m faculty. I get to present. One more item … Continue reading
Passion burns hot. It also burns out. I’ve written on this before, in terms of relationships, but it applies to professional achievements as well. I just spent the weekend with a group of undeniably passionate people, spending hundreds of dollars … Continue reading
I published a book today. It’s a collection of fairy tales I got tired of trying to sell to agents/publishers, so I took them in-house and used my local team, and got illustrations from some of the kids I teach, … Continue reading
Last November, I participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) for the second time. I hit my 50,000 word target, also the second time I’d accomplished that. I went there, and got the t-shirt (I always get the t-shirt, and I … Continue reading
This post is primarily for my writer friends (God bless them and make their books sell like ice on the 4th of July), but anyone, in any endeavor, will hear a familiar echo, I suspect. For the sports-phobic, hang in … Continue reading
I’m currently reading The B-Side, by Ben Yagoda, about the death of Tin Pan Alley and the American Song. I’ve learned a great deal from this book, some of it (of course) about music, but a lot of it about … Continue reading
I’m singing the blues today. There’s redemptive stuff at the end, if you can’t handle that. TL;DR: Losing sucks, for some substantive reasons. It’s worth being sad about. But there are often other ways to get what you wanted to … Continue reading
Not sure anyone follows this space for actual what-is-Chris-writing information, but just in case, here you go: I’m entered in Brenda Drake’s #pitchwars contest. I have chosen five mentors to pitch to, and I’ve heard from one (she’s going to … Continue reading
Today is the 151st anniversary of day 2 of the three-day battle of Gettysburg. I finished reading The Killer Angels this morning, Michael Shaara’s brilliant retelling of that critical conflict. It is sobering, and sad, almost tragically sad if you … Continue reading
And I’ve done it. Three straight NaNoWriMos. That’s right, people. 150,000 words since Halloween. At least 500 words every day. Every day between 500 and 2700 words, averaging a cool 1650. That doesn’t sound like a lot when I write … Continue reading