Story & Characters

As a writer, one of the things I appreciate deeply about my teenagers is their creative writing focus; I love the stories they dabble in and the characters they develop. Those characters take on roles in their stories and in their art, whether on the iPad or in...

The Paths We Get to Travel

Yesterday, as we watched Bohemian Rhapsody for the second time, my oldest teenager pointed out how often I say the scene playing is my favorite—”Oh, this is my favorite scene in the movie,” I said over, and over, and over again. It’s a thing I tend to do apparently,...

Movies, Chicken Soup & Big Magic on Off Days

Today, the hours passed more quickly than I anticipated and with each passing hour I became more and more acutely aware that these words had not been written and this post had not been done and my mind was moving in too many directions to rein in for more than a few...

They Take My Breath Away

A couple of years ago as Christmas approached, I was trying to figure out gifts for the girls’ grandparents, especially my parents who are long distance in Florida at this point. It struck me that something personal, something created by the girls would be a perfect...

Collaborations Created around Creativity

As a writer, I am familiar with the way my creative pursuit can sometimes feel isolating or even lonely because so much of writing happens in solitary time blocks. This is why I have often been drawn to the stories about The Inklings, the group of writers and friends...