For most Americans of a certain age, the summer of 1968 is viewed as a kind of dark chasm that yawned between the Summer of Love and the Summer of Woodstock. It was, after all, the summer of Martin, the summer of Bobby. Of My Lai and Biafra. It marked the rise of Nixon and…
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Crafting a Killer Title
Since I’m between drafts on my novel-in-progress, I’ve been working on a lot of short stories lately. Besides honing my writing skills, the experience has given me new appreciation for an oft-overlooked element of the short story: the title. It may be the smallest part of the story, but the title gives the biggest first…
Rocky Mountain Writer #116
Alissa Johnson & Setting Achievable Goals Award winning writer and WritingStrides coach Alissa Johnson recently presented to the Western Slope branch in Grand Junction and she will give RMFW’s free monthly talk in March, “Writing Reset: Setting Achievable Goals.” (That workshop is Saturday, March 17 in Denver.) On the podcast, Alissa talks with guest interviewer Natasha…
Words Matter
As a mere child, I’d cut letters from words to make more words. For example, from the title of this blog, Words Matter: matt, rat, as, word, sword, words, matter, toward, wad, or, more, war, roar, stat, at, dot, draw, date, mate, rate, ate, watt, smart. Then, I’d form silly sentences: Draw Matt as a…
Rocky Mountain Writer #115
Mike Houtz & Dark Spiral Down Mike Houtz just signed a deal with Wild Rose Press to publish his first novel, Dark Spiral Down. The deal wouldn’t have happened had Mike not signed up for one of the key features at every Colorado Gold conference—to pitch to the many agents and editors who fly into…