Ch. 3: Writing
-
Every time I think about it, the number of years that have passed overwhelms me with something a little less than grief and a little more than wonder. 34 years. . . and counting. And yet, when I tap into the power of that almighty muse that fueled my way through the autumn of 1992,…
-
As we begin our study of poetry in my English classes, we are preparing for our participation in Poetry Out Loud, a program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts. Instead of reviewing the list of approved poems for the competition, I first take my students through a Daybook writing activity where they answer…
-
I need your help. In 2025, my primary goal was to immerse myself into my creative endeavors: writing, drawing, crafting, and photography. On all measures, I exceeded my goals. Much of what I accomplished was private and not done with the intention of sharing with a larger audience. The focus was to dedicate more time…
-
We are exactly one week away from students showing up in our classrooms and beginning that next year-long journey of their high school experience, and we spent the day at countywide Professional Learning sessions. Ours in the English Language Arts weren’t bad at all. We were fortunate to spend the morning with this year’s HoCoPoLitSo…
-
At the end of 2023, I decided that I was going to make a commitment to reading, primarily for me and to help me as a writer. I wanted to read and study more of the books that fall into genres that shaped me as a writer – most particularly Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, and Suspense-Thriller.…
-
My brother, Warren, raised me on the stories that founded the fantasy genre. From Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings to Adams’ Watership Down to Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, we read it all. Not only was he an avid reader of the genre, but he was a pretty damn good artist, too, bringing dragons to life…
-
Each year, I read between 45 and 65 books by a variety of authors in multiple genres. Over a 43-year span, I have read most of Stephen King’s novels, but not in order, and certainly not in a space where I picked up on all of the nuances and threads running through his books. For…
-
For the past month, I have been reading, writing, and reflecting on what we – more selfishly, I – can do about the increasing crises and tensions in America. I posed this question in my May 8th blog titled, “How Do We Act In This American Crisis?“: What am I already doing naturally, on a…
-
In late July of 1973, my dad woke me gently from my sleep just after 4 a.m., and immediately I sprung from my bed, slipping on my kid-sized khakis and a pair of fish-head sneakers before heading downstairs to the kitchen. There, he had just finished stirring some instant coffee in my Snoopy mug. The…
-
I’m spending my day in another county with my Speech and Debate team, as they take on a number of other schools in our local league. There are a few things that demand my full attention as their coach during the day, especially in the morning and between rounds, but for the most part, I…
