Me and my Boys… I love my kids.   My wife and I have two boys, one just turned sixteen (Michael), and the other will be fourteen in April (Dylan).   I love these guys.   They can be a barrel of fun to goof around with and an exasperating challenge to deal with at the same time.   Sometimes, we do all of this on purpose. Laundry day.   Actually, we do laundry just about every day of the week, but that’s beside the point.   Anyways, when folding laundry, one of the things that bugs my wife and I a lot is that we have to turn the boys’ clothes right side out before we fold them.   I know, I know—it’s not that big a deal, but it also wouldn’t be that big a deal for our sons to just take the care to make sure their clothes are right side out before they go into the laundry.   I decide to mention this to the boys, and I get this sort of “okay” eyeroll.   I can tell they’re not taking it seriously, so I tell them that any piece of laundry that c...

Disclaimer first—I do not consider myself a professional anything, so my suggestions and tips should be taken as just one more person on the internet sharing his personal opinion based on his own experiences.  These tips and ideas may work for you too, but they may not.  Just saying.     Writing Tip #003 Write something every day!   I know this is a tip that a ton of writers throw around as the go-to-advice for being a writer, but there is so much truth to this exercise.   Seriously, if you actually sit down (or stand if you write standing up) commit yourself to write just one thing every day, it will keep your fire lit.   Write one chapter.   Write one page.   Write one paragraph.   Hey, just write one sentence—something that develops your story a little further than it was.   Set that small goal before you sit down to write, and just make that little goal happen.   Yeah, maybe you will delete that sentence, or paragraph,...

 Part Two:   There is far too much hate, arrogance, and bullying on social media.   Now, this is an opinion that I’ve had from the first swollen up hate filled rant that I read on social media.   I don’t recall the topic of the rant, but I remember knowing to my core that this person would not be saying these words to the recipient if they were face to face.   This thousand-mile buffer zone creates a false sense of bravery for some posters, or trolls as some people call them.   I do my best to reason that maybe this act of dominance over a person they don’t know and probably will never meet is a confidence builder to some.   Maybe taking that stand enabled the poster to stand up to a bully in real life, or walk out on an abuser.   I don’t know, but I can only hope for a positive effect from all of this.    Plus, there are a lot of people that want their opinion to be heard, and why should they?   Why shouldn’t they?   That brin...

I was having a conversation with a friend the other day social media.  The whole topic was brought up because they wanted to know why I didn’t have a Facebook or Instagram account.  My answer was short and simple:  I just don’t like social media that much.  If you want a more detailed answer, it’s a two-part story.    Part One:  Until last year, I did have an account with just about every social media platform out there—Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Goodreads, Linkedin, Readit—I could go on.  As a creator, I was under the impression that the more accounts that I could blanket my work across, the more likely I was to make a sale.  (Here’s a tip, and this one’s for free, having multiple accounts does not help you sell content.)  After one crazy weekend, I decided to delete the bulk of my accounts and consolidate down to one account on Twitter.  What happened?  I was hacked.  Someone had managed to hack into my Facebook acc...

Disclaimer first—I do not consider myself a professional anything, so my suggestions and tips should be taken as just one more person on the internet sharing his personal opinion based on his own experiences.  These tips and ideas may work for you too, but they may not.  Just saying. Writing Tip #009 Quit while you’re ahead!   Okay, that sounds bad, and I'm sure that you're probably taking that the wrong way, but that's not the way that I mean it.  What I mean is, when you're getting tired, and you know that you need to stop writing for the night; or because you need to get ready for work, or whatever-- find a spot to quit that will be easy to start up again.   Example:  Sometimes, I will find myself at a turning point in my story—maybe in the midst of a confrontation, or even on the verge of killing off a character.   Stop right there.   Wait.   Let the words that you’ve already written soak in for a few hours, maybe even overnight...