A Writer Celebrates Ball Point Pen Day

I must confess my pen fetish. Imagine my joy to learn that there is a National Ball Point Pen Day! So buckle up, I’m going to teach you something you didn’t know about pens. This holiday was created to celebrate the filing of the patent for the ball point...

Celebrate Best Friends Day

My best friend Caryn keeps all my secrets. She’s been a loyal, kind-hearted friend since middle school. We’ve been through many milestones together. She taught me how to shave my legs with a razor. Whenever we talk, we pick up where we left off as if only...

The Comeback Kid

A writer colleague recently asked me to name the hardest-to-write story I’ve done. This article originally appeared in The Lakeland Ledger, Polk County, Florida, on May 3, 1998. Here it is. As Polk City Hardware’s softball team storms through the season, one...

Embrace Your Geekness Day

Welcome to Embrace Your Geekness Day! This holiday was not my idea, but I embrace it wholeheartedly. Think of all the people who have been labeled geek, wonk, nerd, and such. Among them are industry leaders, creative geniuses, outcasts, and eccentrics. I embrace my...

Mom Rules

I have learned that teenagers live in the age of forgetting. Simple skills–even basic rules of civilized conduct–they mastered at age seven disappear at age 14, like closing doors, saying ‘please’ and ‘thank-you’, putting things back where they found them,...

Harry Potter and Universal Studios

I might never go to Disney World again after a trip to Universal Studios in Orlando to see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The magic of activating animatronics from the wave of a wand, the perfection of detail, and the absolute visceral experience of the food,...

The Mom Squad

When my daughter Jessica joined the Junior Varsity Cheerleader squad in high school, I never suspected how much it would demand of both of us. Sure, the girls cheered at football games and basketball games, but these activities merely fronted for the real...

540 Writers Community Presentation

Have you heard of the 540 Writers Community? The 540 Writers Community—a faith-based 501c3 nonprofit—exists to educate, encourage, and equip writers to create clean, clear, compelling, life-changing content. The 540 Writers Community seeks to help underserved writers...

You Say You Want Your Wife to Fly

A mere six percent of the licensed pilots in America are female. As one of them, I often hear men complain, “I can’t get my wife to fly with me.” Okay, guys, let me explain something. Some of the tactics you use to attract your loved one into aviation have driven her...

Flying with the Phillips 66 Aerostars

When my editor texted me in Israel about a ride with the Phillips 66 Aerostars on Thursday at SUN ‘n FUN, she didn’t ask if I wanted the ride, she asked if I’d be back in time for it. Even if being at the Media Center at 7:30 a.m. required mainlining caffeine, I was...