Writers can be snobs. They associate with a chosen genre, become known in that clique and stick with it until someone pulls the plug on their laptops. Poets don’t descend into fiction, novelists won’t be seen with journalists, YA writers avoid erotica. Well, we live our lives that way, don’t we? Avoiding anything that challenges…

Maybe I’ll never quite get over my mother’s disapproval of all things sexual. Nice girls don’t know and certainly don’t talk about sex. So how is a writer to deal with this parentally created obstacle? When is a sex scene in fiction commercially obligatory, mere titillation, or structurally important? Recently a friend gave me a…

    Joe and Deb Blair left New England on a whim and a motorcycle, stalled out in Iowa, pleased with its space, the light and each other. Then came a house and another mouth to feed, and another, and twins, one of whom has autism. After twenty or so years of marriage and fixing…

Today I will complete the major revisions of the novel. The big reveal scares me, especially since I’m not sure yet how big the finish will be. I don’t like forced excitement in a book. Like gratuitous sex, a drum roll on the last two pages might be a little too artsy. But I’ll know…

  1. If a writer does not have a spouse to fix dinner, a hospitable sister will do just fine. Especially if she cooks from scratch. 2. Do not think you can make do with a computer that has no printer and a keyboard made for Tinkerbell. Unless you have a daughter who will FedEx…