Better Writing Through Chemistry

A friend recommended the movie “Just Like Heaven.” Reese and Ruffalo starred; I admired their work. On HBO. DVR set. Off I go. Wanted to love this love story about a doctor who dies but isn’t dead yet.  Her spirit haunts her apartment which he rents, and somehow he’s the only one that can see…

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Dance With The Deadline

As if Frankenstein himself is busting down the door, many writers are freaked slap out by the deadline.  The writer will cower and bargain with the monster, begging for more time to explore and re-work.  Any argument tempts nature like a rooftop experiment in an electrical storm ultimately making the writer feel crazy-mad, defeated and,…

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Catching Creativity

“Oh, have you got the crud that’s going around?” she asked a writer-friend while fearlessly hugging her. I cringed; I’d just hugged her and hadn’t noticed her having any flu symptoms.  I closely watched the interaction and told myself that she was tired, and yes, stuffy, but no, not the creeping crud.  Not submitting to…

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Baby Present

So here I am…a man who never had younger siblings, a man without a child, a man who’s never changed a diaper and gets paranoid around babies…and I’m having lunch with a dear friend and meeting her five-month old son.  I said the standard things — “he’s so cute,” “what a good baby,” “are you…

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