Over the holidays I’ve gotten to spend time with the sweethearts of my two adult children. They are lovely people. The question of how you treat your children’s chosen lovers reveals a lot about yourself and your own prejudices. What is in your rational mind is not always the same as what your habits reveal….
Once, about 33 years ago, I spent Christmas in the dumps. I’d been married in the midst of a blizzard. Four years later, I’d bought her rabbit-fur earmuffs for Christmas. But the marriage was failing and we didn’t make it that far. Instead, we had a big fight, and that was the end. I had…
I’ve been working for 45 years. Every one of those jobs — and they were pretty diverse — taught me something. Often it was something I never realized I’d be learning. I decided to look back and catalogue all those things I learned. If you know anything about my career, you can see a lot…
I was recently in a competitive situation for an editing job. A first-time author with a book contract was seeking an editor, and someone she trusted had recommended me. She was also considering others. Strange as it may seem, this doesn’t usually happen with me. Usually, people who pick me want me. And I flubbed…
I’m working with about ten clients right now on various projects. And I’m dealing with a personal family issue that makes it challenging to work quickly or steadily, at least for a few days. Most of my clients are authors. A few are corporate folks, but they’re folks I’ve spoken with, folks I’ve worked with,…
Yeah. These doctors are good people, at least the ones I know. There are a lot of doctors in America. They’re in every available specialty. And I’ve interacted with a bunch of them lately, both for my family and personally. I’m sure there are doctors who don’t know what they’re doing or don’t give a…
I take a great deal of satisfaction in my streak. I write a substantive blog post every weekday, and have since I started this blog in March of 2015, almost five years ago. This is, of course, an insane thing to do. There is no rational reason for it. You might think the irrational reason…
I’m soooo close to 200 responses in my author survey. If you didn’t already take it and you are (or plan to be) a nonfiction author, please help. This is the last chance to do that. It’s 8 minutes. Eight. It’s here. Everyone who takes it gets a summary of survey results (see where you…
Tomorrow you will get to read my first ever horror story — and it’s a paid gig. Here’s how that happened and why it probably was inevitable. My ghostwriting agency, Gotham Ghostwriters, regularly sends out emails with specific ghostwriting needs. I’m very selective about which ones I pitch, because my value is in writing tech-focused…