The Gift of Story

A recent blog by Sal­ly Lloyd-Jones got me think­ing about a ques­tion we authors hear some ver­sion all the time: Where do you get your ideas, or how do you come up with ideas for your sto­ries? The ques­tion would sug­gest that there’s a trea­sure trove, some­where, packed with sto­ries ready for the tak­ing. Or […]

Mister Cellophane

I recent­ly read a blog post by author René Sal­daña, Jr., that got me wondering—and not for the first time—how much effort teach­ers and librar­i­ans, espe­cial­ly, go to when search­ing for books by authors of col­or. It is a ques­tion worth ask­ing. The oth­er day, out of curios­i­ty, I Googled myself. I found a whopping […]

The Poetry Pool

I love a good laugh. I laugh every day. I even make a point of giv­ing oth­ers cause to chuck­le, even if it’s some­times at my own expense. Laugh­ter is cleans­ing, heal­ing, and nec­es­sary. God him­self has a phe­nom­e­nal sense of humor. He made us, did­n’t he? Yes, laugh­ter is to be appre­ci­at­ed, enjoyed. That […]