Writers Need a Vacation, Not A Trip

    I recently returned from Albion, Indiana where I visited my wife’s brother and his six children.  We had made the 16 hour drive from Oklahoma because my wife’s brother, his wife and his two oldest children went on a mission trip to Panama and needed my wife’s Dad to watch the house and

5 Ways To Focus On Writing When You Get Off Track

The holidays were rough for writing, at least as far as my personal goals were concerned.  However, even though I had great family time with relatives and watched my children dig into their Christmas gifts un-distracted, I did manage to edit through my new WIP a couple of times. But that’s 53,000+ words, Roger.  How

The U.S. of After Chapter 29

Kelly I felt like killing him. I had to know why he wore my husband’s uniform, but the words wouldn’t form in my mouth.  I just stood there next to him as he waited in line for water and glared at him.  He finally turned around to see me and smiled a bit.  It was

Don’t Blame the Writer

In the wake of the Aurora tragedy, the media is coming out of the woodwork with some off the wall commentating.  This terrible event has unfortunately become the fodder for those who would want to point fingers and blame others for the act of a deranged man.  I first heard the blame game being played

Went to Sea World and Wrote Anyway: Travelog Day 3

Today we arrived at the San Antonio river walk and spent the better part of a day exploring it.  We traveled to the Alamo, where I explained to my children about the sacrifices made by the brave people who occupied that famous fort so many years ago.  We looked at the chips in the stone

Went to Sea World and Wrote Anyway: Travelog Day 2

We arrived at Sea World yesterday morning, and the kids were extremely excited to see all the great shows and ride all the rides.  Due to my horrible case of vertigo (yeah, just like Jimmy Stewart in the movie) I could not ride any of the rides that went very high.  This was a bummer

Went to Sea World and Wrote Anyway: Travelog Day 1

This week my family and I have traveled to San Antonio, Texas in order to take the kids to Sea World and then enjoy the San Antonio river walk the next day.  We are driving back Wednesday. I also have 8 chapters of the first book of This Broken Earth, due out August 1st to finish

5 Ways to Work With Stubborn Writing

I spent last week with my son at camp and then visiting my uncle, and today it’s back to the laptop to start working on the novel again.  My only problem is that this scene I am about to write just doesn’t flow out of my head and through my keyboard like I’d prefer.  It

What Boy Scouts Inadvertently Taught Me About Being a Dad

I returned early from the Boy Scout campout at Slippery Falls Ranch in Tishomingo, and I’ll have to say that my son and I were disappointed in the experience (at least the part involving Boy Scouts).  For example, in order for a scout to carry a pocket knife around, he has to endure a 3

Guest Post: A Series of Potentially Dangerous Experiments by Amy Paulussen

The television season finales were a month ago, and for a month now nothing new has aired.  We have two (or three) more months until new content is added.   What will I do with myself? I recently moved to the Northern Hemisphere, where this tragedy occurs at the beginning of summer, not winter. Instead