When I first began writing for pay I submitted 17 articles before I received my first rejection letter. I counted them because the Writer’s Market how-to book I considered my bible, spent a great deal of time talking about rejection letters.
I assumed I had to get at least 100 before I sold an article. So when everything I sent out sold, I was confused. After all, the Writer’s Market spent SOOOO much time reassuring writers and talking about the inevitable, soul-crushing rejection letters that I was getting nervous, wondering what …

I like to watch fat people sweat. Self included. It’s become a national past time you know. The reality show, The Biggest Loser (finale is tonight) kicked it off, but then shows like HUGE (sit com about a fat camp for kids), Heavy (documentary about fat people exercising at Hilton Head’s Health complex) and even Ruby (a 500+ pound woman losing weight) have all captivated an obese nation. But it’s not just the heavy folks watching for inspiration.
Skinny people are mesmerized by these shows too. And as a storyteller …

My friend Christina makes magnets and t-shirts with awesome and thoughtful sayings. My favorite is, “I’m not her anymore.” Thanks to Facebook and the internet it’s entirely possible to find almost anyone from our past - or for them to find us.
A friend from college and another acquaintance from high school found me last week. Their lives had taken a radical departure from what they assumed they’d be in school, but they expected me to be the same person I was when I saw them 30+ years ago. Here’s a …

The “Stay Hungry” ebook is finally here! Only $5 for 44-pages of photos and story you can’t get in the magazine articles or blog posts - including photos of my father at the last family reunion, seven months before he passed away; photos of the inside of the van after 2009 remodeling.
The past two years have been a tremendous time for personal growth for me - not always reflected in this blog, but often touched on in many of my posts. There have been more and more opportunities …

“In gardens, beauty is a by-product. The main business is sex and death.” ~Sam Llewelyn
When I first read Sam Llewelyn’s quote about gardens it kind of threw me, but he’s right. Amidst all the growing and greenery is death - and lots of it. It’s what life in the garden is about - reproduction, life and death. There are the hard-shelled wings of black beetles that my skink (a lizard) leaves scattered throughout the garden. I don’t see him feeding - only the undigested carnage of his work …