by Edie Melson @EdieMelson Most writers I know are part of a conflicted group. We’re driven to write—spending time composing poetry, writing books, researching articles. We doodle titles, character names, and plot ideas on scraps of paper. All the while feeling guilty about the time we spend pursuing our dream. I…

When I was in junior high, anytime I felt like I needed a good cry, I’d just ask my dad to help me with my math. I’d like to say something about the “sums of the fathers” right here, but any way you pun it, it was actually all me.…

Attempting to write during the Christmas holidays adds another line in the dictionary’s definition for stress. We’re busier now than at any time during the year. Our planning and preparation is fun, and we feel like kids who’ve eaten way too much sugar. But the joy of the season vanishes…

Up on a bookshelf A reader’s list Filled with Christmas Novels as gifts. Down through the aisles With lots of books, All with metaphors and crazy hooks. Ho Ho Ho A writer would know. Ho Ho Ho A writer would know. Oh, up on a bookshelf Click Click Click Down…

I was talking with a good friend of mine, Torry Martin, at a conference, and we got into an interesting discussion. He mentioned that being submissive was something that writers don’t often consider. The look on my face must have clued him into my confusion because he went on. “It’s a…

Some time ago, I was writing a story and used a variation of the sentence, “He wished he could be a fly on the wall when they had that conversation.” This puzzled my critique partner, who didn’t know it meant. She had never heard the expression “fly on the wall”…