How NOT to be a Poodle

There is a saying in writer’s workshops:

Kill All Your Poodles.

A “Poodle” is some bit of wordcraft that you, their writer, are in love with; a sentence or metaphor that you wrote and think is precious. “Wow,” you say to yourself, “Nobody has ever written anything more beautiful in the English language than what I just wrote [...]

Precious Moments, Part Two

I did not know that my book was going to be reviewed by Nancy Pearl, the book maven of NPR, on Morning Edition this morning (Dec. 10, 2009) so I didn’t get to hear my name LIVE on the radio — but the tape was   pretty damn exciting. Here’s the link to the conversaton that [...]