As a writer, I've worked with my share of editors. I've appreciated every one of them. A couple of them, I've downright loved. The editors I've loved working with have had something important in common. Their focus was on what was right with my work, instead of what was wrong with it. Eventually we got around to refining the disjointed thoughts and cleaning up the sentences … [Read more...]

I’m not a sound sleeper. The question each night is not whether I’ll wake up, but whether I’ll be able to get back to sleep once I do. Some restless nights my eyes open and my mind immediately begins flitting from topic to topic like a fickle honeybee. I think about getting older, and about the unsettling physical changes than come with age. But it’s not just the physical signs … [Read more...]

A few years ago, just before a Sagittarius New Moon, our indoor cat Spike escaped the secure confines of our home and went walkabout. I soothed my anxiety by imagining him on a kind of exciting Spirit Quest, possibly involving medicinal-grade catnip. When he returned 36 hours later, Spike seemed calm and fairly mellow, if ravenously hungry; but he paid the price for his … [Read more...]

I was born with the Moon in Gemini, and I’ve been a writer ever since I can remember. Growing up, whenever I needed to relax, to reconnect with myself, I’d write something. Usually it wasn’t anything profound. Sometimes, it was as simple as composing lists of things I wanted to do and be in life. But there was always something about the sheer act of writing that I found … [Read more...]

  In the film Fearless, a man named Max survives a horrific plane crash. His survival has convinced him that he's immortal, and this belief has made him utterly (and dangerously) fearless. He does seem almost supernatural - for instance, his life-long and deadly allergy to strawberries seems to have miraculously disappeared since the accident. But he's also become … [Read more...]