Published in The Writing Cooperative, winter 2021 When you read the title of this article, what do you envision? For many, it probably brings images of a “Hansel and Gretel” movie to mind, or perhaps a traumatic experience of feeding ducks…

Published in The Writing Cooperative, winter 2021 If you’re a writer, you’re probably used to thinking long and hard about everything you put into a story. If you’re like me, you probably spend hours upon hours coming up with your…

Published in Curious, winter 2021 I studied literature in college. Yep — you read that right! For anyone who loves reading like I did growing up, studying literature sounds like an absolute dream. I spent my days in and out…

Published in The Post-Grad Survival Guide, winter 2021 When I graduated college, I was on top of the world. I’d worked long and hard to finish my degree — late nights, insufferable classes, long hours at work and school — it was…

Published in The Writing Cooperative, winter 2021 When I was in college studying creative writing, I was required to take classes outside of my chosen tract — fiction. At the time I was a little unhappy about this — I didn’t…

Published in Inspired Writer, winter 2021 1 a: STROLL My family walks. Every year at the holidays you can find us strolling through the back neighborhoods wrapped in thick coats and scarves and being dragged by two dogs. Each Thanksgiving,…

Published in The Writing Cooperative, winter 2021 One of the hardest things we face as writers is conveying emotion. Using words to make someone feel — better yet, to make a reader understand your characters — is tricky. I’ve mentioned…

Published in The Creative CafÉ, winter 2021 What is it that separates good writers from mediocre ones? How does one make themself stand out in the midst of so many other writers in the world? Voice. Voice is sometimes elusive…

Published in Inspired Writer, winter 2020 When I got the call, I was standing on the school shuttle, hand tied up in the strap overhead to keep myself from catapulting into the student in front of me. My backpack was…

Published in The Writing Cooperative, winter 2020 So you’re writing a book. Or planning to write a book. Or you have an idea for a book to write one day, that for now sits in the back of your mind,…

Published in The Writing Cooperative, winter 2020 So you’re writing a story. It might be a novel or it might be a short story. It could be fantasy or thriller. Maybe a mystery novel or a science fiction masterpiece. But…

Published in The Creative Café, winter 2020 Every morning we’d drive the same route to school. A right turn, past the Baker’s Springs sign and on to Duplex Road. The road was so narrow two cars could barely pass by…

Published in The Writing Cooperative, fall 2020 If you’re like me, you probably start hearing buzz from your writing community about National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)every year starting in September and October. I have countless friends who love NaNoWriMo and I…

Published in The Writing Cooperative, summer 2020 We’ve all been there — settling in for a relaxing evening with a cup of tea ready to read the latest acquisition from the local bookstore, only to be disappointed after getting a…

Published in The Writing Cooperative, summer 2020 We all can undoubtedly think of characters from our favorite works of fiction that stick with us. Some stories are propelled forward by amazingly realistic characters that kind of feel like our best…

Published in The Creative Cafe, summer 2020 So you want to be a poet. You have decided that you’re going to become the next great Instagram poet and land a lucrative book deal. You want to bring poetry to the…

Published in The Writing Cooperative, spring 2020 So you want to submit to a literary journal. You have a short story, or some poems, or a flashy nonfiction piece that you’re convinced is a sure-fire piece that editors all over…

Published in The Book Mechanic, spring 2020 When I was new to writing, I often didn’t know what I was doing. I spent the valuable (and few) minutes I had every day to devote to writing just floating around in…

Published in Bookishly, spring 2020 When you think of poetry, your mind might go to the classics. Perhaps to Homer’s The Odyssey or to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales — both epic stories told in meter and reflected in the tropes of modern storytelling still used…

Published in Adroit Journal, fall 2019 “They started painting the smokestacks green / so now everything is fine, it only looks like the forest / is on fire.” This image, from the ironically named poem “E Pluribus Unum” in Brandon…