being a writer

I need a sabbatical. I didn’t know that was the word I’d been searching for until I talked to my neighbor, a Lutheran minister. Our kids are friends, and we were all at a community event Saturday night. I asked him how the ministering business was…

Last week was “show week”: the culmination of a three-month corporate scriptwriting project. I arrived in Chicago (the site of the show), ready for anything. I’ve written enough of these shows now to know that anything can happen. (Anything!)…

Last week, during a storm, lightning struck the power sub-station just a few blocks away. At the time, I didn’t know that had happened. I just knew that our power flickered strongly. When it came back on, I noticed that the fan in my office was running…

It’s the season for baby birds to fall out of nests. On Saturday afternoon, one fell out of the big maple tree in our front yard, right into a patch of creeping jenny. I was outside with my kids when we discovered it, its tiny mouth growing bigger than…

I don’t like to be misunderstood. No one likes it. But I REALLY don’t like it. After all, my career is about using words to communicate. Isn’t that why writers write? (It is, according to this picture I took in my son’s first grade classroom.) So…