When I was writing my first Nanowrimo, back in 2008, I was informed that one of my characters needed to take a fall.  It was a week before Thanksgiving and my characters were pretty much running the show.  I was about 35,000 words along, no outline, and my word count was healthy … but suddenly gusts of inspiration were wandering around too far overhead to find my screen. Oh, why had I decided to wing it? All my pals with their sturdy outlines next to their keyboards were marching ahead, pursuing their master plans. Their October prepping was paying off, while my messy inspirational index cards...

It turns out that a number of HR departments, far away, have been hard at work slandering Virgos — making it almost impossible for recent college grads to land a job, all because of their “unfortunate” birthdays. The chief complaint?  They allege that they’re just too picky.  Imagine … HR chieftains pitching Virgo-spawned resumes into handy circular files and defiantly closing doors in our faces. Because we’re too picky? So who has the upper hand now — it depends on the source. But it sounds like Aquarians, Geminis, and Librans are getting short-listed in...

I really like the sound of “almost,” because it reminds me of the scene in “One Hundred Foot Journey” when the deliciously bombastic Indian Papa slips in love with the not so prissy anymore French restauranteur across the street, and calls her his “almost girlfriend.”  And then they dance together so tenderly. Almost poetry. And when I write out Roman numerals … saying almost 62, the coyest way I can  … why pussyfoot about what’s about to happen when it’s real as the day I was born.  As real as when I surrendered my very first one-way...

I saw an igloo on the beach, this morning.  No Eskimos in sight.  No blue glacier in the distance  … just an inflatable igloo with two people inside who were wearing very little and quietly turning pages.  No, I wasn’t staring at them … I was merely beholding.  (Much better.) And not far away from this igloo were a woman and child hauling over-sized sea-worthy noodles across the sand.  And two Japanese tourists were waist-high in the low tide giggling noisily while dousing each other with what certainly looked like wet cannons.  And off in the background, an ambitious fellow...