Category: Personal

  • The Truest, Realest Gifts

    Something terrible happened in a community near to my little town twenty-two years ago. A twelve year old was murdered in a horrible, senseless way. He was biking to a Boy Scout meeting through a shortcut in the woods, was taken by two men who had been watching him, and was tortured to death. I…

  • Telling Lies to the Young Is Wrong

    I came across this poem in the comments section of Justine Larbalestier’s blog, posted there by Chris McClaren, and had to steal it to post over here as well.  It’s just too good, and sums up my feelings in recent years about how we should teach our children and ourselves to look at the world.…

  • Time Travel

    Today in class one of my freshman writing students raised his hand to ask me a question and started his sentence by calling me Mr. Chris.  For one brief moment, I was in a classroom of Japanese junior high kids.  Then I blinked and asked him to repeat his question.

  • There goes the neighborhood

    The Lutheran church across the street from my apartment building set up a little performance area tonight, with a backdrop cloth that said “Elvis Lives”. When the sun went down, fifteen cars showed up, then people got out of their cars with folding chairs and arranged them about fifty feet across the parking lot from…

  • Fooling Around

    My friend Brooke is helping me do a lot of the local promotion and publicity for my book. The girl knows virtually everyone you need to know around this place to get things noticed, and so my publicist at Bantam sent her a box of books the other week to help when getting in touch…

  • Days go by

    Ugh, this is sort of agonizing, waiting waiting waiting for my book to come out.  For months, even after all the work with Bantam was done for putting it together, it was this distant thing in my mind.  But now its presence just keeps looming nearer and nearer.  Rick Bowes told me that every writer…

  • Nature and Nurture

    I think people sometimes take for granted the kind of environment they grow up in, and how it plays a part in shaping who they become. Of course we all know that’s a given, that we’re influenced by our environment, but I myself can sometimes get caught up in what-might-have-beens. Usually when people get caught…

  • Surprise

    I had the most awesome birthday evening yesterday. I spent most of the day on my own, just bumbling along from one thing to another. Then in the evening, went to the Stage, where I met my parents in the parking lot outside with my friends and took the elevator up to the third floor…

  • Birthday

    It’s that time of year again.  Today:  lounging around doing nothing but whatever I want, mostly reading and eating chocolate brownies and then later, going to The Stage, where I’ll give a reading from One for Sorrow, then a martini or two at Imbibe, then dancing!  It’s nice outside.  I may go outside to read…

  • Hello, Goodbye

    Back from New York City, which was wonderful as usual.  So many things seen and done and eaten and heard, etc.  Now I’m doing laundry and getting ready to pack, because starting tomorrow I’ll be in Cleveland for the next three days teaching at the Imagination Writing Workshop.  I attended Imagination when I was 19…