“I still don’t have what I want,” says Rita Moreno, star of stage, screen, and television and also a winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, an Oscar, and a Kennedy Center Honor recipient. (“The Queen,” by Erik Maza, Town&Country, March 2022, pg. 84.) I understood w

Lily Tomlin once said, “I always wanted to be someone, but now I realize I should have been more specific.” I know the feeling.  Nearly ten years have passed since writer Susan Stoner and I began the book talk show, Just Read It. I had dreams of becoming the next Bill Moyers. How

“We are a storytelling species, every bit as much as a tool-using one,” writes the author of The English Professor Who Foresaw Modern Neuroscience.   I agree. As a teacher, I would tell my students, “If you want to see how your mind works, write something.”  Composition exp

As a writer, I read voraciously. Anyone who claims to be a writer but reads little is delusional. Each journey through another person’s mind is a data point that increases our knowledge. Failing to keep up with new ideas invites trouble. For example, a woman on Facebook referred to

“Video and audio are the hottest media,” writes Clive Thompson, a reporter for the tech magazine Wired. ( “Every Word You Say,” by Clive Thompson, Wired, May 2021, pg.15,)  I have to agree.  My Write Away blog is approaching its 11th anniversary and enjoys a respectable numb

I mentioned on Facebook recently that I’d been privileged to interview best-selling author, Anne Hillerman.  The daughter of Tony Hillerman, she picked up writing his popular Southwest Indian mysteries that featured detectives Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee.  This April, Anne Hillerman

My mother’s imminent death and the disruption Covid-19 caused me to forget an important anniversary in May of this year.  Just Read It, my YouTube review of the New York Times bestsellers in fiction and memoir turned 5. I want to thank the local writers who joined me during this ti

I’m thinking today about the ways Covid-19 has rendered our society dysfunctional. We seem to blame the virus for much of what’s happened of late.  For example, I scheduled a  phone conference at 10 a.m. last Friday with one of my computer gurus. We had planned to do a trial run

Where it has been imposed, the Covid-19 lockdown begins to seem endless, particularly because the number of victims continues to rise despite the precaution. In some states, sheer economic exhaustion has emboldened a few businesses to open. But, if the spike continues to rise, these s

  The month of May marks a new beginning for Just Read it and for me.  Just Read it is the 10 minute YouTube video program Susan Stoner and I have co-hosted over the last 4 years.  During each show, a Portland, Oregon author joined us to discuss a book from the New York Times B