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No place like home

As summer vacation draws to a close and my school year begins, I can’t help but think that I am returning home after a summer abroad. After a dozen years of teaching, my school has begun to feel a little like home. It has become a fixture of my life, and during my years spent…

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Skookum!

Elysha rarely calls me by name. Like most couples, we have developed a series of pet names and nicknames for one another. Skookum, a word that means the best (and ironically also means monster) is our most commonly-used moniker but honey, sweetie, and the like make their way into the lexicon as well. This left…

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Did they use straws to empty the pools?

Did you know that skateboard parks began with southern California skateboarders in the 1970’s known as Z-Boys, who would trespass into neighbor’s backyards, empty the pool and use it as a half pipe and concrete ramp? The 1970’s were such an odd time in America.

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Is it time for product placement in fiction?

A month after my first novel, SOMETHING MISSING, hit the store shelves, I began receiving the occasional but persistent email from readers asking and oftentimes accusing me of having made product placement deals during the writing of my book. It would seem that my frequent use of specific brand names in the book had struck a…

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Knock! Knock!

For the third time this week, I have found myself in a single-person public restroom, door locked, conducting my business, when someone attempts to open the door, discovers it locked, and then knocks. Who are these people? When you encounter a restroom door that is locked, what goes through these moron’s heads? I wonder who…

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The backhanded compliment bio

Last night’s appearance at Posman Books in Chelsea Market went well, and the turnout was terrific. Anytime a bookseller must drag out more chairs and offer stools to a standing-room audience, you feel good. And last night marked the debut of my new author bio, read by the bookseller as part of her introduction of…

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Contest runner-up #2

Cheryl Harris entered my biography contest with this entry, which I adore, perhaps a little too much. Since author bios are ordinarily assumed to have been written in part by the author, this one was simply too self-congratulatory for my purposes. I feared that I would sound like a pompous ass. But I appreciate the sentiments…

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Name your kid after me or don’t. No middle ground.

I don’t understand people who think that naming their child after a grandparent or other relative only requires the use of the first letter in the name. “My son’s name is Mason. He’s named after his great uncle Mortimer.” “We’re naming her Piper after my grandmother Patty-Sue.” There are people who abide by this logic.…

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Susan Stamberg confirms that I’m not old man.

In a character analysis of Eric Cartman from South Park, NPR’s Susan Stamberg played a famous rant from the foul mouthed cartoon boy. She then said, “If you don’t recognize this voice, then you probably aren’t a male ages 18-24.” Suddenly I felt very hip and cool, youthful and cutting-edge. No, Susan Stamberg, I’m not…

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The Page 69 Test

Marshall McLuhan recommends that the book browser turn to page 69 of any book and read it. If you like that page, buy the book. It works. Following this theory, I have written a guest post for the blog The Page 69 Test, as it pertains to UNEXPECTEDLY, MILO.  Surprisingly, even though page 69 of…

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