Friends, It’s been a challenging summer and a demanding year, but the good news is that mental health awareness is on the rise, and this time it’s got me thinking about our cultural safety nets for those with mental illness ranging from this new hotline to free Youtube segments to widely prescribed antidepressants, anti-anxiety narcotics, and anti-psychotics.  It’s also got me thinking about two titles:  Demon Copperhead, the new novel by Barbara Kingsolver, and David Copperfield, the classic by Dickens on which Kingsolver’s new book is based.  Originally published July 28, 2023.

This newsletter is about craft so if you aren’t into writing craft, get out while you can.  More specifically, this newsletter is about scene counting, that vice of novelists and perhaps almost nobody else.  Originally published April 28, 2023.

Hello, hello . . . it seems the corporate giants just keep getting bigger, but what does it mean? Are the barbarians upon us? Imagine an economic system in which the mere mention of your political party affiliation to a competitor will cause them to instantly sell out to you? Originally published February 18, 2023.

It has been a year -- and I don't mean a year since my last message in this space -- I mean 2022.  What a year.  Covid continues but masks are history.  Like many of you, I'm sporting a bunch of new needle holes and I leak when I drink water, like in a cartoon.  The north pole has become the wobbly Polar Vortex.  Originally published December 7, 2022.