When my daughter, Miss O, had just turned six-years-old and my son, Mr. D was two-years-old, we were interviewed by a local Seattle tv station about how we were planning to survive a coming heat wave that week by eating lots of ice cream. The questions were about as soft ball as you can get … More Episode 34: How To: Writing Family Narratives with Brian Hannon
It seems like the vein of stories about dates that didn’t go well is as wide as it is deep, and usually worth a giggle. I remember a good friend telling me the story about a date who showed up to pick her up for dinner with a Big Head Barbie affixed to his hood … More Episode 33: Love Lessons with Mark Petruska
An end of the month round-up for August. … More August’s Greatest Hits
In this episode, I’m with my co-host Vicki Atkinson and we are doing a two-part series about podcasting. In this second episode of the two, we are focusing on the mechanics of podcasting. We talk about some of the choices we’ve had to make about where to publish our podcast, how widely to distribute it … More Episode 32: Trying Podcasting Part 2 with Wynne and Vicki
I’ve been trying to pinpoint the reason that I enjoy Cheryl Oreglia’s writing so much, or at least the top three. Is it because she makes me laugh even when delivering hard truths? Or because her writing sparkles with the delight of someone who loves life? Or because she’s willing to dig deep to find … More Episode 30: True Grit with Cheryl Oreglia
And end of the month line-up for June. … More July’s Greatest Hits
Last week Mark Petruska wrote a post Eye of the tiger, thrill of the fight that spoke to me deeply. First of all, who doesn’t love a good anthem to get them going when life is going very well? [Vicki has a great resource for finding personal anthems, see link at the bottom of the … More Episode 26: Eye of the Tiger with Mark Petruska
The other night I was sitting at dinner with my dear blogging friend, Betsy Kerekes, and mentioned that she has written three books. After dinner she jokingly said to me something like, “it was a great dinner except for having to get out of talking about my books.” I thought to myself, “oh good, I’m … More Episode 25: The Book Publishing Journey with Vicki Atkinson
When I sat down to read Lois Roelofs’ excellent book, Marv Taking Charge, I didn’t expect that the word I’d come away with after finishing would be “uplifting.” After all, I knew that it was an end-of-life story of a wonderful man, Marv, and Lois’ support and honoring of him as he spends his final … More Episode 23: Marv Taking Charge with Lois Roelofs
I think it’s safe to say that writing is a solitary pursuit. I don’t know of anyone who writes while hanging out with other people. I mean we might write in a coffee shop but not usually when we are carrying out a conversation with others. This might be why I find it so fascinating … More Episode 22: Themes in “Surviving Sue” with Vicki Atkinson
The Heart of the Matter 