Bad Writing Is…Bad Writing

I’m a big fan of the summer movies, but lately there have been some real stinkers coming out of Hollywood.  Many of the films released this year have been dead on arrival, garnering positive percentage ratings on Rotten Tomatoes (a site that aggregates all internet reviews) of less than 20%. Films like The Lone Ranger,

The Truth About ISBN Numbers

There are many authors out there who want to publish their books, and publishing through Amazon Kindle or Nook for free seems to be a growing route for most people who desire to circumvent the traditional publishing methods.  The traditional method means sending query after query to a long list of literary agents and then

Weekly Roundup: 9/21/12

It has been a busy week, but now I am off for my annual trip to Ennis, Texas where Conner and I and a few friends will attend the NHRA drag races.  This will be our third year at the races, and it looks to be a great weekend since it will be 80 degrees

My Struggling Special Needs Son

My son Conner has had and will probably always have struggles in school.  He was born at 24 weeks, weighed 1 lb. 8 oz., and is severely nearsighted.  At first we thought that this miracle child had only those things that would keep him from leading a somewhat normal life, but then came asthma, a

Analytical Thinking and the Modern High School Student

I am one month into springing my common core lesson plans on my 11th grade English students.  They seemed to be doing quite well with it, but today I said something to them that caused them to completely flatline. This all began with an essay I assigned last week.  They were given a poem (a

This Week’s Round Up: Information and Inspiration

This week we have some very good information about self-publishing and two stories that are posted here simply for inspirational reasons.  We all need that.  I love these inspirational stories.  Sometimes it’s the only thing I need to get back on the horse and dig the spurs in. 1.  Alan Finder over at the New