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I made some pretty bold moves this weekend, and I’m a lot better off this Sunday night than I was just 48 hours ago. It’s because of some advice that I received last week, on something totally unrelated to what I just discovered. A little backstory here is necessary. Since the 2016 presidential election, I,…
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This weekend, I was enthralled by a blog post shared by Mark Willen (“Sexual Assault: When Real Life and Fiction Collide”), who was pondering how his published works hold up in the #MeToo era. As a result of Mark’s post, which was weighing heavily on my mind today, I decided to ask a few writers/teachers about…
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It’s 4:56 a.m., and I have just dropped off my daughter at work. I pour a fresh cup of coffee, sit down in front of my laptop, and open my working revision of my latest novel, Fossil Five. Seven days to go, I think. Seven days until I release my story to 15 readers around…
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About 15 years ago, in the pre-dawn darkness, I stood outside the brand new Starbucks in Dulaney Plaza and waited patiently for them to open their doors for the first time. I enjoyed being a part of the coffee store’s grand opening, and for years I frequented it often, learning the names of the new…
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by Rus VanWestervelt Exclusive for Baltimore County Breaking News June 21, 2018 A month ago, Laura Joy Rode and Erinn Patrick, third-grade teachers at Seven Oaks Elementary and residents of Parkville, sat in their classrooms with their students until 9 p.m. as police wrapped up their initial investigation of the death of one of their…
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I’m on this new diet (I hate the connotations that are associated with that word; every one of us is on some kind of diet, right?). Anyway, it’s the Keto Diet, and I can’t have more than 27 (ideally 20) net carbs a day. Perspective: I was downing probably 300 net carbs a day. So…
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Earlier today, I had a little sit-down with myself to figure a few things out. You see, my inner critic has been working overtime in the past month or two, absolutely convincing me that the following were completely, and without question, true: My words were no longer meaningful, and they no longer mattered with the…
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I’m not much on labels, but in 1981, Betsy Flowers published an article in Language Arts that talked about the four different kinds of writers. Without going into too much detail, here they are: Madman: Unleashed, uninhibited writing that’s a free-flow from brain and heart to parchment. Architect: Planned structures of the story, plotting out…
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If I were a speechwriter, here’s what I would write for every politician, at every level, in our country. To my Constituents: The incidents of violence that are sweeping our nation are tragic, heartbreaking, and unnerving. There is no doubt that we have an epidemic in America that requires action beyond thoughts and prayers, no…
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Engine 23 And The Lookout Man An Original Short Story by Rus VanWestervelt (Note: I wrote this story last fall for a local horror story contest. Although I did not win, I am extraordinarily happy with how this story turned out. The word limit was 3,000, and I had overwritten by 1,500 words, which I…
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