Writer * Worldbuilder * Life Coach
Contemporary YA: Shut Up This is Seriously Good (A Quick Review)
I’m in the process of brushing up on my awareness of Contemporary YA books (it’s good to know what else is in the market right now that other readers are loving – so I can say readers who liked X, Y, and Z will…
Mysteries Uncovered – Analysis of the Beginning of Rebecca Ross’s Divine Rivals.
Analysis, for those who don’t know, is about making sense of what something is – why it works, or doesn’t. Imagine a Renaissance person (women are part of this Renaissance Analysis Party, too) kicking tires on a 2020 Nissan Altima, wondering if it’s a…
Read before We Write – Listen before We Speak
On December 4th, many Americans felt shock and a blend of emotions at the news report of a mysterious hooded man who shot and killed Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHeathcare. (USA Today Timeline found HERE.) Reports came and went about this assassination-style killing…
Barbara Brown Taylor Shares Her Gifts: A Fabulous Writer Can Make You Think
First, read this: The only clear line I draw these days is this: when my religion tries to come between me and my neighbor, I will choose my neighbor… Jesus never commanded me to love my religion. – Barbara Brown Taylor, from Holy Envy…
John McWhorter: A Credible Writer for Making Sense of a Complex America
One of the first discussions I have about readings with my college composition students is that two common components can get in the way of understanding new readings: 1) Vocabulary, and 2) lack of Background Knowledge. (Vocabulary being helpful explains itself, but Background Knowledge…
The Atlantic Scores Again: American Left and Centrists Can Learn from French Progressives and Centrists.
Read this story from the Atlantic’s Thomas Chatterton Williams about what happened this July in France when problems with a growing Far Right movement (think anti-immigrant, pro-business, smaller-government, but much more complex than that) threatened everything. France, at first, floundered. Then it didn’t. It…
Cycles of Change and Stability – Finding Purpose in the Normal – Great Song
One thing I love about a new semester is that a predictable cycle starts again. One thing I DON’T love about a new semester is that a predictable cycle starts again. There is comfort in the sameness and there can be stagnation in it…
