Think that writing is a cheap endeavor? Consider some of the ways we put our money where our words are: Computers, tablets, readers, phones Wifi expenses Coffee shop “dues” Printers and ink Paper (Our paperless world has produced more paper, not less.) Pens, pencils and all that clutter in the desk drawer The desk and…

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…