Sunday afternoon, before we left, Lisa Silverthorne and I walked on the beach along the Cost of Lincoln City, Oregon. It was a sunny day, but cold. I was wearing layers, as was Lisa, but the wind can still somehow manage to get through. It didn’t matter, though. It was, at that moment, the perfect […]
Read More ...An Announcement, and the Weekend of Zero Sleep
I’m pleased to announce that John Helfers has accepted my short story “The Legend of Parker Clark and Lois Jane” for publication in his Fiction River anthology “How to Save the World.” Yay! # I’m sitting here in a hotel room in Portland, Oregon, reflecting back on four outstanding days spent at a workshop hosted […]
Read More ...Guns and Solution #3
Yes, I know this is a sensitive topic. Wade forward with care. If you’ve been around here for a bit, you know I enjoy listening to things about how one should think about the world. This means I tend to enjoy (and link to) things like Freakonomics podcasts. This is one of those posts. And […]
Read More ...Time For a Little Reading
So, I know what I’ll be doing for the next few days worth of my “free time.” I’ll be heading to Oregon next Wednesday to participate in a workshop focused on anthologies, hosted by Kris Rusch and Dean Smith. This morning we received a reading assignment–work through 20+ stories by the time the workshop begins. […]
Read More ...Simple Writing Advice
Okay. Perhaps this is put a little too simply. Or perhaps it’s phrased a little too directly for your taste. But it’s perhaps the most basic and spot-on writing advice you’ll find. (“stolen” from Mike Cole’s FB stream…perhaps NSFW) Share Me
Read More ...Estimating … Piff!
So the “80s Song Story” turned out to be 3,000 words, rather than 2,500. Who can estimate, eh? This is relevant to a conversation Brigid (my daughter) and I had yesterday. She’s working on a short story as a partial break from her book, and I asked her to guess how long it would be–realizing […]
Read More ...Ron Does Crits
Tonight I can announce that I will be offering to critique manuscripts at the Spring Writer’s Conference (in Greensburg, Indiana — April 27th). The sessions will be 1-on-1 discussions that are planned to last up to 30 minutes. Some Ground-rules/Details: 1) Manuscripts are due to the coordinator by April 1 2) Length Requirement: No More […]
Read More ...80s Ron Meets Future Ron
Made it to about 2300 words on my new story. One more, short scene and I’ll be done with the first draft. I don’t think it’ll need too much clean-up to be ready to go, but I’m saying that without having read through it. Note to self: I’ve been wrong before. I’m guessing this will […]
Read More ...Pedometer Goes “Boing”
So, I broke my “GoZone” (pedometer) a couple days ago. Yes, it was traumatic. It was a bit over two years old. No, it wasn’t’ the electronic read-out, that broke. It wasn’t the body cracking or splitting or whatever. In fact, the actual step counter worked just fine. It was the strap. Or, to be […]
Read More ...Writing in Reverse
Yesterday, as I was driving into work, a classic song from the 80s came on the radio. It was one of those multitude of songs that kind of all fade into one big mass of songs (perhaps you know the type–one of those that immediately make me think of Hugh Grant and his thrown hip […]
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