Some days I stare at a blank page - ok, usually it's a blank screen and think Sh*t, I don't know how to write. Then I realize that I do. I can put words on paper, I can report, but to really write something inspired, is to take the plunge into sensory details, is to sink into what teachers and artists call the 'flow.' Maybe, musicians say that too. I dunno know. Good prose gets me going. I pick up a 'mentor' book like Rachael Herron's Fast-Draft Your Memoir. - Honestly, it wa

I remember the charming memoirs written by James Herriot about his life as a country vet in Yorkshire (have I got that right?). All Creatures Great and Small is perhaps the most well known, but I devoured the entire series back in the day. However, it was Frank McCourt's memoir Angela Ashes that brought memoir writing to a new level: confessional, honest, brutal at times, but ultimately redemptive. Memoir must traverse the tightrope between brag sheet and sob story in order

Happy Birthday Nathanael! What will they think of next? A lego Christmas tree?