Fitzgerald, in Volumes
Whenever I see Fitzgerald in the bookstore, I can’t but recall fondly how his books taught me to write.
207. STEPHEN KING: The desk
If that sounds bad the best I can offer is that it is not. Those swells remind me that whatever part of me is broken, there is another part that isn’t.
But Always There Has Been Pearl Jam
I’d go home, open a bottle of Jameson, turn off the lights in my room, pull out the napkins, crank up Merkinball, and write until the story was done.
The #500words Writing Challenge. Join Me.
Writing requires discipline. Sit down every day, and write the words on the page. Until the end of April, I’m starting a challenge: Write 500 words a day. I hope you’ll join me.
My Drunken Email to Michael Lewis: A Graduate School Story
Tonight, an object lesson for students in the age of social media. (Actually, I’m surprised this story has remained ‘off blog’ for so long since my friends are ever-so-happy to hear it told.) In 1999, I worked as a teaching assistant for Michael Lewis while a…
On Why Reading Too Much is Exactly What Kids Need
Professors see multi-tasking as a function of students using technology, but the call to ban technology in classrooms fails to understand the root of the problem: a lack of reading and comprehension skills.
On Writing about the NSA and Terrorism on September 11, 2001
As the nation tried to collect itself in the hours, minutes, and days after the terrorist attacks, our president rightfully spent a great deal of time and energy reassuring the public. What I didn’t believe, though, was the insistence that we could adequately monitor digital communications in order to find out if there were looming threats.
Things That Happen in a Writer’s Mind
After months and years of research, I’ve finally started outlining So Far Appalachia, my next book project. The early part of the writing process involves organizing my anecdotes, inserting them within chapters, and arranging the chapters in a way that will elicit the reader to…
Review: Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and the People Who Play It
Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and the People Who Play It by David M. Ewalt My rating: 3 of 5 stars It’s wildly difficult to write a first-person account of a phenomenon. The reason: Authors-as-characters only work when they become…
January: The Year of Focus Update
We know that the best way for humans to change their behavior patterns is through tracking mechanisms. If you want to lose weight, you have to count (somewhere) what you are eating. If you want to get stronger in the gym, you have to count…
The Year of Focus
I think thematically. As each year comes to a close, I spend December sitting with the work of my previous year. I sift through what I’ve created, I look at what I didn’t create, and conceptualize what I want my next year to become. I’ve always been…
“We Spend Two Years Figuring Out How To Tell Stories.”
While I am happy at Ball State University, I have to give some love to my (graduate) alma mater, the University of California at Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. All graduate programs are not created equal. Berkeley is an elite institution training (future) award-winning journalists…