I got the news today: A Square Foot of Calfskin has made it to Round 2 of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. It’s no longer one of ten thousand–now it’s one of two thousand, among the four hundred books left in the YA category. The next round of judging ends on the 14th of […]
Since I can’t write about courage without occasionally mentioning something I’ve done: I’ve entered my novel, A Square Foot of Calfskin, in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. It’s a contest for unpublished or self-published books, and it might just help me get some eyes on my work. Judging for the first round just started, […]
There is a host of reasons folks have trotted out in recent years to be disdainful of our tradition of Thanksgiving: The way we celebrate has little in common with the way the original settlers celebrated. It’s a celebration of gluttony. It’s a celebration of genocide. We don’t focus enough on the giving thanks part. […]
It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all–in which case, you fail by default. J. K. Rowling, from here and here This comes from Rowling’s commencement address at Harvard University in 2008. She doesn’t specifically mention courage, but it’s […]
Why you must be brave. I’ve followed Todd Henry via his Accidental Creative podcast for a couple of years. His advice is simple and straightforward: the key to succeeding as a creative professional (writer, artist, web designer, blogger, architect, etc) is to consistently produce brilliant work. His advice, then, is about how to become and […]
November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. It’s a month of challenge for writers; those who choose to participate make it their goal to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. That’s 1667 words per day for 30 days. 1667 words is a lot of writing for a day, especially if […]