“You Make a Mean Salad”

The Importance of Complicating Characters The summer after he and I graduated high school, my friend (for the sake of anonymity, let’s call him Ed, even though his real name is Joe), had perhaps his first truly adult date with his girlfriend (get your mind out of the gutter; I don’t mean it that way).Continue reading ““You Make a Mean Salad””

I Gave An Interview!

The wonderful blogger and all-around smarty Wynne Leon interviewed me a little while ago about my new audio play, Step 9, available wherever you get your podcasts (just search “New Normal Rep” and “Step 9” and you’re good to go! She generously allowed me to reprint it here: In March 2020 when Seattle went intoContinue reading “I Gave An Interview!”

Killing Your Darlings. In Your Writing, I Mean. Not In Some Jim-Jonesian Way.

Hemingway said you should write your story, and then take all of the “best” lines out. Would we like F. Scott Fitzgerald, or Toni Morrison, or James Baldwin half as much if they took our their best lines?

Who Wants Hear Me Pontificate About Monologues?*

OF COURSE YOU DO, FRANKLY, WHO COULD RESIST SUCH A GREAT TEASER? The good news: this will be a short post. The bad news: I’ll be acting as if I know something. And I think it’s only fair to reming everyone of the late, great William Goldman wrote, “Nobody knows anything.” So, that said, letContinue reading “Who Wants Hear Me Pontificate About Monologues?*”

ONE OF THE MANY REASONS I’M NOT INVITED TO A LOT OF PARTIES

“HOW HARD IT IS TO BE SIMPLE!” – VINCENT VAN GOGH, IN A LETTER TO HIS BROTHER, THEO I start with this quote not merely to lend my post an unearned credibility by associating it with the sentiments of a genius, but because I find it an amazingly true insight into creativity and, ugh, I’llContinue reading “ONE OF THE MANY REASONS I’M NOT INVITED TO A LOT OF PARTIES”