Stereotypical Characters I was reading a book the other night and the author—in order to elicit sympathy for the hero—painted the mother-in-law as an extremely annoying…bitch. No other way to say it. It got me thinking about mother-in-laws and how they always seem to draw the short straw. You can’t argue it. Mothers-in-law get a […]
Dante and Luigi Have you ever been reading the book and you wondered why a particular character was in there? One of the most important things in writing is to make sure that each character has a purpose. You can’t just put characters in to fill space; they have to have a reason for being […]
Substance Abuse Addiction and substance abuse affect almost every family in the country. If you don’t have someone in your family afflicted, or a relative, chances are you know someone. Growing up I didn’t realize this. Back then it was the kind of thing that was kept hidden. That uncle who was so hilarious was […]
Wrongful Thoughts Have you ever had one of those thoughts where you judge somebody before you get to know them? Maybe because of their skin color, sexual persuasion, the way they dress or where they live—or their religion? On any given day you can search the news and find horrible stories of prejudice, hate crimes, […]
Why My Characters Drink Coffee I had a few readers write to me and ask why my characters drink so much coffee. The first email I got, I brushed off. Maybe they’re not a coffee drinker, I thought. But then I got another, and yet one more. At that point I was forced to give […]
My wife and I celebrated our 43rd anniversary yesterday. That’s what all the fireworks were about. Because of that, I didn’t have time for a long post, so I threw something together about marriage. What Makes a Marriage Work? Since I’ve started writing, a lot of people have asked questions about my background. Once […]
Early memories The other day I thought of a fond memory from back when I was ten years old. I was helping my Aunt Rose tend to her rose garden, and we were chatting about a lot of things, then, out of the blue, she said, “Life is like a rosebush, Jibbo.” (She always called […]
