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About 15 years ago. I visited a bookstore at the mall — a Borders or Books-A-Million —  where I found a copy of Taming the Monkey Mind,  a free Buddhist handbook on meditation. I was in my early twenties and away from college on break. Philosophy was one of my interests back then and I assumed I could benefit from the book’s teachings. An inscription on the book’s back cover requests that “if you are finished with it, please pass … Read More »

It’s a feeling I am familiar with. Anyone who’s finished writing a story might feel the same. I felt lost, like I was adrift in a boat with no oars or motor. The story had come to an end, but this time it was magnified. It was the end of a series—the cumulative drifting that began with the first book had become a category five hurricane after the fourth. I consoled myself with the first three books, knowing there would … Read More »

One hundred years ago, in January, 1920, Woodrow Wilson was President. World War I was two years in the past. The 18th Amendment, prohibiting “intoxicating liquors,” was the law of the land. The 19th Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote, lay eight months in the future. Seems like ancient history, but there are people alive today who were alive then. The world was on the cusp of the new. The quill had given way to the typewriter, which would … Read More »

Writing is an essentially solitary task. We sit a table or a desk or with a laptop in our—well, lap—and we think hard. We’re silent. We relive past emotions. We imagine things in technicolor. We have imaginary friends. Nobody can do it for us. And yet I would like to suggest that one of the best New Year’s resolutions any writer can make is to become involved with a writers’ group. These loose associations of like-minded people offer two extremely … Read More »