Last year, I did something truly awkward in order to do something awesome. It started when I spotted a photo of an astronaut on the cover of our local township’s newspaper. It was Charles Duke, who walked on the moon as a member of the Apollo 16 mission in 1972. …
one I’ve been involved in many peaceful protests, and the opposition always uses the same basic rhetoric — stop bothering us. Outside of the organization I was protesting, a 20-something man rolled his eyes at my sign and told me to $%&# off and stop harassing people. Others just told …
A few people have asked about what being a beta reader is like… So, here’s the scoop. First of all, what’s a beta reader? A beta reader is a non-professional reader who evaluates a manuscript to help a writer improve its story, characters, setting, pacing, and general readability. Beta β means …
I lost my Grandma Jayne two years ago today. We never had much of a relationship because she lived in upstate New York, a seven-hour drive from my hometown, but what we did have got more and more interesting as we both got older. She didn’t “do computers,” so I …
Call it a tribe, squad, community, troop, or some other word for assemblage, finding a group where you fit can be a powerful thing. Facebook Groups make it easier than ever to find and join a group of people from all over the world who have a specific shared interest… and …
When I was in 6th grade, my mom borrowed from the library a worn VHS tape of the 1967 version of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton (among many others). I watched only about five minutes before I was a bit completely lost, but my mom helpfully explained …
In 1992, my family moved to a different part of town, and my sisters and I had to switch schools in the middle of the year. I was in fourth grade, and this change was highly traumatic on several levels. First, I lost my two best friends (Katie O and …
When I was in second grade, my teacher Miss Fisher gave me and each of my classmates a few sheets of storytelling paper. If you aren’t familiar, it’s a large sheet of paper with three sets of wide lines at the bottom—you know, the kind with the dotted line in …
