“The city flashed by in grays and blacks as I drove west toward Lakewood. I had only crossed one state border, but I felt so much farther from the restlessness and displacement I’d left behind. My mother had been dead not yet a year. Since then, I’d been moving around from place to place, rotating [...]

I’m thrilled to introduce Tricia Springstubb to all my blogging friends. Tricia is a fellow Cleveland writer and a fabulous author who writes for both kids and adults. I gave a copy of her middle-grade novel, What Happened on Fox Street, to a young relative who promptly started drawing (and searching for) foxes. Those who [...]

My fellow writer Jennifer is speaking to the Cleveland West Side Writers this Saturday at 10:45am at the Westlake Porter Library. Visitors are welcome. Jennifer is a publicity and marketing manager for Literary Mama and this summer, she attended the Squaw Valley writers workshop in fiction. She’ll discuss writing prompts and writing practice. I recently [...]

The Lit’s Lantern Awards were held last night and I’m still kicking myself for not being able to attend. See the article listing the winners, who include: Dan Chaon (novel) Tricia Springstubb (short fiction) Kristin Ohlson (essay) George Bilgere (poetry collection) Eric Anderson (single poem) Thrity Umrigar (memoir) Michael Ruhlman (nonfiction book) Erin O’Brien (blog) [...]

I recently told Peter how weird it felt to have a blog that exposes parts of my life, my writing process, my failures, successes, rejections, etc. I’m a fairly private person, so this is a big (and strange) step for me. After I explained how I felt about maintaining my privacy and being reluctant to [...]