It’s that time again: September, when I take a month-long social media break and focus on writing. A friend dubbed it “The September Silence,” and it’s a fitting name because that’s what I seek this month each year: a quieter time to fall into one of the things I love most in life. While September […]

This morning during breakfast, I read this article about what it means to teach high school writers about being published. There was one line, from a student working on a literary publication for high schoolers, that particularly hit me: Editing for Polyphony forced me to slow down. I began to realize that previously, my eyes […]

In one hour and forty-nine minutes, it will be 2020 in North Texas. But I’ve mentioned before that I consider September my new year. And so, this entry is not a recap of the year…nor is it a list of resolutions and goals I wish to accomplish in 2020. At the moment, with the exception […]

In the weeks following a short story’s release on my fiction podcast, Not About Lumberjacks, I record a short behind-the-scenes audio essay about the story. Sometimes I focus on the mechanics of the story or what went into recording, while other times, I focus on something thematic surrounding the story. Most recently, I spent six […]

I am the sole provider of income in our household. I pay the bills as a technical writer. Last Friday, I left the job I had for six years, nine months, and twenty-three days. It’s the longest job I’ve ever had. I start a new job this Wednesday. Changes I think about what I’m giving […]

And so we close the door on 2018… We’ve all seen more than our fair share of year-end lists, I’m sure. I won’t add to that. Instead, I’ll just say this: During a time when layoffs at work resulted in me taking on another writer’s job, I swore to myself, “I will not work overtime […]

Around Christmas, 2017 — I released an episode of my fiction podcast in which I shared a handful of very short fiction, instead of the usual single story for the episode. This year, I continued that tradition, releasing three stories last Sunday. With the rush of year-end work, polishing a novel, and a general busy […]

I usually go to bed at a decent time and sleep through the night. But there comes a point near the end of a draft of a novel when my sleep pattern changes. My sleep also changes with the seasons. I think one of the many reasons I prefer autumn and winter to spring and […]

Today, this little blog turns nine years old. In that time, I’ve been laid off from a long-term job that shut down most of a department. I freelanced with an airline in Guam and edited maintenance work cards for a major airline. I worked at a massive bank during the mortgage crisis, and have had […]