1976, Clayton Junior High. The jocks against the hoods. Me and others somewhere in the middle or maybe on the outside — nerds, bookworms, artists-in-waiting, ROTC members, goody two-shoes. We were too uncoordinated to excel in sports, too scared of getting in trouble to be really bad, and too much (or too little) of something [...]

I hesitated to leave my house today. I had hit my stride in cleaning and organizing, and every newly packed box was getting me more excited about my upcoming writing trip. I already have a list of thirty people to meet in 11 states, and more story tips, ideas, and offers are coming in daily. [...]

Yesterday, I had the privilege of speaking with Suzanne, author of the Twenty Four at Heart blog. She interviewed me about my upcoming journey, and you can read her article here. I’ve been reading Suzanne’s blog for several months, and she’s really an amazing person. She was in a serious car accident three years ago [...]

Years ago, one of my professors told me that she thought I did a wonderful job at exploring the “why” questions in my work, but needed to work on the “how”. I couldn’t help but laugh, because her criticism of my thesis papers is also true of my life in general. I’ve always been much [...]

Radio Flyer is a small 1992 film about two brothers, Mike and Bobby, who invent a flying machine out of a little red wagon so that Bobby can escape the brutal abuse he regularly suffers at the hands of his drunken stepfather.
The end of the film never baffled me. It seemed clear that Bobby’s escape [...]