All We Have To Decide…

Do you have a quote you live your life by or think of often? J. R. R. Tolkien wrote in The Fellowship, “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” I think of this quote more and more as I get older, and since this week marks

My Mother One Year From Her Death

Today’s prompt is a good one. I suppose I could write about a lot of family members, but the one who made the most positive impact on me was my mother, Rita Mae Colby. My mom grew up in southern Oklahoma, Johnson County, near the small town of Milburn. When I say small, I’m not

Why I Ditched Social Media, and You Should, Too

It’s been a long time since I wrote anything on this blog, but it’s been a long time since I’ve written anything at all, really. I’ve written six novels since 2009, but haven’t written anything since 2018. Not a blog post, not a short story, not anything. I went through a horrific set of trials

How a Writer Beats the Coronavirus Blues

As a creative, someone who is hyper-sensitive to emotional cues, I am bombarded with this so much that I am overwhelmed. Sitting down to write about it is at once therapeutic and also necessary. I’ve decided to do a few things to get me through it, and also to help me actually get back to writing.

Works That Inspire Writing Day 3: Heinlein’s “Starship Troopers”

I know I haven’t been doing these day-to-day, but I’ve been trying to keep my students engaged online during this pandemic. However, today’s piece is one of my favorite Robert Heinlein novels: “Starship Troopers”. Unfortunately, Paul Verhoven is forever linked to this amazing novel, having made a horrible adaptation of the book. The novel indeed

Works That Inspire Writing Day 2: Fahrenheit 451

Of all of Ray Bradbury’s novels this one has to be my favorite. It is his most critically acclaimed novel and his most controversial. I honestly think that many of the ideas expressed in the novel are timeless and nothing could be further from the truth in our current political climate in the United States.

An 8 Step Collaborative Essay Lesson Plan Tailored to Your Student’s Needs

Let’s face it. Many of the prompts your state provides for your students are boring. The students will diligently write to the prompt, but the prompts are usually out of touch with current issues or topics that interest your students. So what is the answer? *Note: Before you launch this lesson plan, be sure to

Reblog: The Author’s Voice: Word Choice and Placement #amwriting

This is a fantastic post. I found this over at The Story Reading Ape’s blog. Go check it out for more like this!

A Sentence Diagramming Lesson Your Students Will Love

One skill lost on many modern students is the ability to break down sentences. Of course, diagramming sentences the old-fashioned way is frowned upon as “outmoded” or “blasé”. Nothing could be further from the truth especially when teaching students with limited sentence construction skills. I developed an idea one day about an activity which requires

Make Some Money By Posting Old Blog Posts to Medium

I stumbled upon a little trick to help myself earn a tiny bit more income on the side: Medium.  Medium.com is a blog publishing site where anyone who has an account (which is free) can write content and get paid. The way you get paid is to write good content and then readers will “clap”