A STORY IN A NUTSHELL by John M. Floyd I’ve always felt that meeting with and listening to other writers has helped my own writing. It’s certainly made me change the way I do certain things, and I believe most of those changes have been to my advantage. There are probably two ways to look […]

COGNITIVE RESONANCE by Steve Steinbock I pity the misunderstood analogy. I propose that we stand up and defend the rights of overused and underpaid metaphors. There are tens of thousands of them out there, ignored and forgotten, but used every day. When a TV economist talks about a spiraling economy, is she being fair to […]

LOOKING FOR A HOME by Deborah Elliott-Upton My daughter is house-hunting. Being the dutiful mom, I am accompanying her on rounds with the real estate agent trying to find just the right house to turn into a home for the soon-to-be newlyweds. In the search for what will be the most important expenditure for their […]

I’LL ASK THE QUESTIONS by Rob Lopresti Instead of my usual dispensing of wisdom, I decided this week to ask you fine folks to enlighten me. Perhaps you would be so kind as to answer one or more of these questions in the comments space. Follow that trailer A friend of mine has a novel […]

NOW WHAT? by Melodie Johnson Howe I’m supposed to write a column today but I don’t have Paul Guyot to give me the subject. Where are you Paul when I need you? Now I can’t think of anything to write about. Maybe I have writer’s block. But I don’t believe in writer’s block. I believe […]

ENTITLEMENT PROGRAM by James Lincoln Warren I have a little machine in my head that generates titles. It can be somewhat capricious, but usually it follows certain rules as strict as any algorithm. That’s because not just any phrase is suitable for a title, and as much as we might like some titles and dislike […]

TITLES and ASSETS [1] by Leigh Lundin I remember the title of an adult book I read in the third grade, Fritz Lieber’s Gather Darkness. Without the context of the novel, the title is evocative, but considered with the story, the title is multi-tiered with meaning. Gather Darkness is an exemplary title. Contrasting that with […]