I started The Juggling Writer in September, so I only have a few months of blog posts to pull from. Here are my 10 favorite posts of 2009: 10. The Gift of Reading: One of the best gifts an adult can give a child is a love of reading. Here are 10 reasons why. 9. […]
Sherlock Holmes
My wife and I saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie today. We loved it! I haven’t read all of the Sherlock Holmes stories and novels like my wife has, but I’ve read enough to have cringed when the movie was first announced. Guy Ritchie? I thought. Oh, sure, the boxing scenes he directed in Snatch […]
Backing it Up
Yesterday, I wrote about how a layoff can be good for a part time writer. I said I would show readers that I follow my own advice. Here it is… Seven years ago I was laid off. I didn’t mope or panic about my situation; instead, I pitched a local travel article to the Dallas […]
2010
Hopefully you’ve been thinking about 2010 and your writing plans. If you haven’t, there’s still time in 2009 to give it some thought. Call it a resolution — call it a plan, but it’s important to look at next year and decide what you’ll make happen with your writing. * * * I could come […]
The Gift of Books
Yesterday, I wrote about giving the gift of reading. In yesterday’s blog entry, I wrote about how my mom is one of the people who made me love reading. We had a very rare white Christmas in north Texas. (I haven’t seen a white Christmas in 25 years, when I used to live north of […]
The Gift of Reading
Some of my fondest memories are of my mom reading Carl Sandburg’s Rootabaga Stories to me when I was a kid. My sister read…a lot! It’s natural for a younger sibling to do what an older sibling does, so I became a reader, too. One of my favorite Christmas gifts ever was when my dad […]
Giving Thanks
It’s Thanksgiving in the states. I think about things I’m thankful for quite a bit (because I’m a big sap like that), but I don’t think I’ve ever made a list off the top of my head of the things I’m thankful for when it comes to writing. So here goes: I’m thankful for my […]
The Patience of an Oyster
A good friend used to manage a music store. A regular customer was looking for a second job and applied for a position at the store. On the application, where one could list various skills and traits, this person wrote this and nothing more: “I have the patience of an oyster.” I’ve been told that […]
The Sunday Night Ache
Sunday nights get to me. I love having a weekend to see the people I love, and I love having a weekend to write! Sunday night signals a return to the 5/7ths of the week I have to work. When it comes to jobs, I have a good one. I’ve turned down offers making almost […]
Looking Back
There are times I look back on my writing progress in recent years and feel like I haven’t done enough. I can come up with excuses; some of them are even valid: I spent a couple years caring for my big sister before she died from cancer in 2003. I’ve spent most of my recent […]
Odd Jobs Help Writing
You probably spend the day working someplace where you wouldn’t be if you made a living writing full time. I’ve worked at my current job (editing and formatting airplane manuals) for almost five years. I like my job as much as I can like a day job. It’s the longest job I’ve ever held, but […]
The Best Thing About Halloween
My wife knew my writing before she knew me. She was an artist working for a small independent comic book publisher in 1992. I was writing for the company. She read a couple scripts I wrote that were being developed, and she loved my writing. Being the spouse of a writer can be a very […]
Thank You
Thank you to everybody who’s been reading The Juggling Writer. It really means a lot to me. Thank you to those who have subscribed to this blog, and thank you to those who have commented to entries. If you haven’t subscribed, it’s as easy as clicking here or on the RSS feed icon in the […]