I wrote my first picture book manuscript back in 1993. It remains unpublished. Luckily, I’ve learned a few important things along my publishing journey, and in an effort to pay it forward, I'd like to share. My TOP 5 THINGS I WISH I’D KNOWN BACK IN 1993: 5. Read a lot, especially what you like to write, like obscene amounts. Read so much that your television gets dusty. Why this is so important: It keeps your writing fresh and relevant and on point, genre wise. It's like a fr

Possibilities excite me. They always have. I’d even call myself a full devotee to “will it happen?” energy. The Land of Unknown is where my goals/dreams push past the doubt monster, leave his tortuous skepticism behind, and materialize from the fog. It’s where they solidify and take up residence in my brain. My dreams motivate me. My lofty goals are what makes me do the work. I don’t need convincing to roll up my sleeves. The work is simply part of my process because dreams d

Any writer, regardless of where they are on their journey towards publication, gets asked this question: how do you get your ideas for writing? It matters not what the writer writes. It matters not if they are school-aged or adult. The question is universal. For me, my ideas come from life. For example, back in 2011 I spent a considerable amount of time in a hospice just before my father-in-law passed. As I sat there in the quiet, watching him breathe, a new story began to ta

As we all know by now, I'm a writer. Lucky for anyone reading this today, my 8th grade diary is alive and well and a personal treasure. Sometimes I read it to see if I can feel a wisp of that innocence. Other times I pick it up to time warp back to when my parents were alive and death felt like something that only happened to characters in a book. But mostly I read it for laughs. Behold. December 21, 1980 Dear Diary, Oh boy! Our "group" went out Christmas caroling tonight and