A few years back, my son Jacob returned home heart-broken from school. “What’s wrong?” I asked him. “Some kids at school were laughing at me, saying there’s no such thing as Santa Claus.” “No such thing as Santa Claus?” I replied. “Well, is there?” he asked, searching my eyes for the truth. I took a deep breath and gathered my thoughts—knowing full well this was going to be a defining moment in our relationship, as well as his young life. Just like my father before me, I answ

There’s a strange phenomenon that happens to some fiction writers that seems impossible to explain to rational-minded outliners. That’s the arrival of an unexpected and unplanned character. If you write seat-of-the-pants like I do, this odd happening can occur more times than you expect. My most fully formed invasive character showed up in Soundrise, my latest novel on The Story Plant. My protagonist, Derek Nilsson, is trying to get out of his apartment building vestibule wit

With the holidays upon us and two extraordinarily difficult years behind us, I’ve been reflecting on the impact of long periods of isolation many of us have experienced. Curiously it’s not all bad, because I think we have learned to appreciate the time we have alone as well as with others. Balance offers us a framework for interpreting our thoughts and actions in a dynamic set of circumstances we can neither predict nor control. Resilience is all about never ceding optimism t

In 9th grade English class we were told to choose between two books — Invisible Man or To Kill a Mockingbird. I chose Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, which will always be one of my favorite novels. Forty years later, I finally sat down and read Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s astounding to me that a novel published in 1960 about life in the South during the Great Depression can still be so profoundly captivating, tender, and intimately absorbing. Without doubt, Mockin

In my novel series, Future’s Dark Past, I make use of a hover drone/board (HDB). I supped it up. Gave it a titanium coat. Whiz banged it out. It’s a very high-tech device with a miniature Gatling gun in the front. It had an AI computer on board that manages the flying and can perform remote missions by itself. The mini jet engines were powerful enough to carry a heavy load. Granted the setting is in the year 2025, but I thought the technology wouldn’t be there yet. But then t

I’m tired of “living for the weekend.” There was a time in my life when I’d fire up the car on Friday after a long work week and scream at the top of my lungs, “IT’S THE WEEKEND, BABY, WHOOOO!!!” 😂. I’d blast my car stereo with whatever feel good music I happened to be listening to at the time to celebrate the week’s glorious end. Then I’d burn rubber (in my mind) while I carefully cruised out of the employee parking lot driving a respectable 10-15 mph. I’m tired of having t

Do you know Kimberly Brock? If you don’t, you should. She is a true natural story-teller; one of those authors that I envy. Her writing is evocative, and she lays out a trail of stones that carry you places you didn’t know you had, buried deep inside. But once she holds your hand and takes you there, you’re looking around nodding, because it was a secret you hid from yourself. It’s a trip I highly recommend. But aside from a gushing fan-girl moment, I have another reason for

Our national conversation about gender identity has been an ongoing miscommunication for decades. I grew up at a time when people would beat up guys (like me) who had long hair. Girls in that era had to fight our junior high administration to be able to wear jeans to school—and for a while their shorts were only permissible under skirts. Anyone who thinks all the issues that the LGBTQ community stands for now are somehow deviant, aberrant, or regressive isn’t listening very w

This post from Bruce marks the end of the I Buried Paul book tour! Want to check out all the stops on the tour? Head on over to Pump Up Your Book for a full list of the blogs. Thank you for joining us and don't forget to pick up your copy of I Buried Paul from your favorite retailer. Every artist knows the drill. Finish a project, then, if finances and life-circumstances permit, take a well-earned hiatus to re-engage with the natural world and other humans. This is the creati

I was not completely honest with my husband the other night. He, from the living room, asked me, on the deck: Who are you talking to? I’m not, I said. You’re talking, he said. I’m just saying words, I said, I’m not having a conversation. This may or may not have been true depending on your definition of conversation. Because in fact, he had overheard me having an informal exchange (verbal on my side) with a mouse hunkered down in the belly of our grill. She’d attempted nests