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ON VETERANS DAY 2024

Veterans Day is for the old folks who remember their youth and those who were young with them. They remember the young people who didn’t have the chance to get old. My Dad got a chance to get old. He out-lived his Dad, just like I’m out-living him.

BREAKING NEWS BREAKDOWN ON GOOGLE

Search for ‘Breaking News’ and what do you get? Google News at the top of the scroll. Makes sense. Search google for breaking news and they promote themselves. I’d do the same thing. So would you. Let’s take a look around.

WRITING ROOTS: HOW DEEP DO THEY GROW

Writing roots are reading roots. Everybody knows that from their first grade if they had a teacher as good as Mrs. Baker. I recall her saying, ‘Our writing is a reflection of our reading.’ I believed it then as I believe it now. (Folding a corner to mark my place in Patrick DeWitt’s novel The […]

WRITER LIFE CHRISTMAS WHEN IT’S NOT ABOUT WRITING OR LIFE

Does ‘writer life’ mean writing about life, or the experience of someone who writes? Answer silently while you write about a life of writing. Writer’s Life? Mine began as a small child at my Grandma’s house. She handed me a book.

FIGHT TOGETHER, OR AGAINST EACH OTHER

Fight together if you have goals and aspirations. Face it, going it alone is too hard. A solitary life won’t understand how this works. Neither will a shallow life that bows to every new fad and flavor. The problem for too many is what to do if they bow down so far they fall on […]

CONFLICT WRITING: WHEN DOES IT HIT HOME

Conflict writing happens in every story, every movie, every book. Without conflict, there is no tension, and no reason to turn the page. Weak writing is a list, an inventory of boxes to check, instead of personal involvement. What’s the difference?

CONFLICT RESOLUTION BASIC TRAINING

I’ll start with a common conflict that needs a few rounds of conflict resolution. Let’s say you have a pile of composed bark dust and six wheel barrows and six shovels and six Scouts doing community service. They signed up for three hours and know how to tell time. The early teens wanted to work, […]

SASQUATCH BIG RIG vs REAL LIFE RIG

    How does the Sasquatch Music Festival pull off a three day stand without the drama of conflict and violence? It is America, but no violence? How can that happen?   The rest of the world needs to know and maybe they can tamp down the problems in their neighborhood.   It starts with […]

FATHERS DAY, LIKE A BIRTHDAY BUT NOT A WEEK LONG

Ten years later our sister showed up for family pictures. Until then it was all boys. Fathers of an all boy family have problems with their Boys Club. If the boys grow up to be bad men, it’s on the them. Good men? Lucky they had such a good mom. Does that sound right? A […]

BOOMER COACHES LITTLE LEAGUE?

When The Big Time Is Right Where You Are. The interesting news you hear from kid sports is usually about parents. And it’s not good news. Reading about someone going berserk at a youth sport game is your chance to say, “I’d never do that,” and you’re probably right. But you never know what you […]