Writing

What I learned while teaching inmates to write

SALEM — An hour before I’m to present a three-hour writers workshop at the maximum security facility of the Oregon State Penitentiary,...

Entertaining angels

I’ve been marketing books of mine now for more than 20 years but only recently realized a big mistake I was making: Thinking it was only...

Living a Yahtzee life

They say if you want to make money in the writing business you find a niche and go to that place again and again. In other words, if the...

Mother of Rain outstanding

Mother of Rain, about hardscrabble life in the hills of Tennessee in the 1930s and ’40s, is the most intriguing read I’ve experienced in...

Why I don’t believe in writer’s block

It’s one of the most oft-asked questions I get as a writer and teacher: “What can I do about writer’s block?” “Write,” I say. (I was...