Aftermath

Since moving to Oklahoma from southern California 13 years ago, I have noticed a recurring condition that strikes people after a tornado touches down in a heavily populated area. As a lifelong sufferer of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), I recognize it all too well...

The Face of the Muse

I suppose we’ve all dipped into our personal mythology once or twice and described our inspiration as having come from a muse. I’ve used the term frequently as a music composer, but seldom as a writer, and I’ve certainly never given this entity a face, but author Kelly Sedinger made me think twice about this earlier in the week with his blog entry, When the Muse Taunts Me. Seriously, I’ve never read a more thoroughly entertaining description of this so-called muse who has come down to us from ancient Greece. Granted, the persona his has taken on is vastly removed from that which Homer and Hesiod described, but to each our own, right? I don’t think we have any real control over this.

Lost & Found: The Writer's Mojo

We all lose our creative mojo from time to time. These days, it’s so damned easy due to the internet, jobs, family… this list goes on. But let’s face it. There are still just as many hours in the day as there were for Helen Keller, Mark Twain, Henry Miller, and Jane Austen, and when you consider all of the time-saving inventions we take for granted that they never had, we actually have more hours available to us. For me, the every day demands aren’t reasons, they’re excuses. The real reason is more personal, more honest, and more revealing of who I am as a writer and a person.