There’s a line in Radiohead’s song “Creep” that always settled somewhere deep within me: I don’t belong here… It’s a feeling I’ve struggled with for decades. There have been times, even among close friends, that I’ve felt like I don’t belong. I know part of it goes back to being heavily picked on when I […]

On July 6, I gave myself 80s days to finish the current draft of the latest novel-in-progress. On July 31, the company where I work went through [another] large layoff. I was spared, but another technical writer in my group wasn’t. And guess who got his job on top of all the regular writing tasks […]

As the 80-Day challenge to get the current draft of the novel-in-progress readable clicks along, it’s that time of the year: The September Silence. Named by a friend who missed seeing me on Facebook each September when I logged out to kick off my favorite writing time of the year (September – November), it has […]

One of my favorite people to follow online is Alastair Humphreys. I have several of his books (and recommend Microadventures to anyone). Alastair recently tweeted about accepting an 80-day challenge. The challenge is geared more toward adventure, but Alastair decided to do something different. His challenge: finish the book he’s working on. Follow @MrMarkBeaumont on […]

One of my favorite novels (probably my favorite novel of all novels I’ve read) is Robert Olmstead’s A Trail of Heart’s Blood Wherever We Go. It is quirky, yet so normal. It’s lean in its writing, even though at times — admittedly — it goes on a bit long in scenes. But man, those moments […]

For me, September is my writing new year. There’s just something about the arrival of the month that turns summer into fall that I love. Even though it stays hot in Texas into late October or early November, September is when it seems like I get a second writing wind just as the starting gun […]

In junior high I was pulled out of several normal classes and put into L.D. L.D. stood for “learning disability.” (Seriously, that’s what they called it!) I was not a permanent resident like some students, but it was enough of an embarrassment to add to the already constant bullying I received during those years. Somewhere […]

I slept in this morning. I looked at the clock around 4:30 and thought, “Up now, or another hour of sleep?” I opted for another hour. I did the same thing at 5:30. (I like getting up between 5:00 and 5:30 to write on days I work from home.) When I got out of bed […]

I work for a large software company. Recently, email was sent out that we could take “creativity” courses through one of our training sites. I went to check out one of the classes. I took the pre-test, a 4-question quiz to test how “creative” we already are. I missed half of them. Apparently I’m not […]

Last night the Chicago Cubs won the World Series. I was born less than three miles from Wrigley Field. The north side of Chicago is Cubs territory, through and through. Even people who don’t particularly like sports on the north side (yes, a handful of people like that do exist), still believed that every year […]