M. Scott Peck opened his now famous book, The Road Less Traveled with these lines: "Life is Difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths." Who am I to argue? I'm now on one of those difficult, yes, challenging, parts of life, as I deal with a recent diagnosis of prostate cancer. But what I want to borrow from Mr. Peck is not so much his opening lines as the title of the [...]
The 10 Step Radical Remission & Total Health Program The following ten steps are based on Radical Remission: Surviving Cancer Against All Odds and Radical Hope: 10 Key Healing Factors from Exceptional Survivors of Cancer & Other Diseases by Kelly A. Turner, Ph.D. #1 Exercise: Daily activity including walking, softball, pickleball, possibly yoga/stretching. #2 Spiritual Connection: Meditation, breathwork, reading spiritual material. This is is a short prayer a good friend of mine shared with me from [...]
If you've found yourself at this blog post, you probably already know that I've been diagnosed with prostate cancer and that I'm using a holistic/complementary approach to treating it that I refer to as 'loving my cancer' away. If you want the full story about the health and well-being journey I'm on, I suggest you start by viewing the video and/or reading my GoFundMe page. Also, please know how much I appreciate all the contributions including [...]
All disciplines have their own language, from science to many different professions including being a writer. See how familiar you are with the language of writers and authors with this fun and free crossword puzzle. Instructions for solving a crossword online: Click a cell on the crossword grid, or click a clue Click twice on a cell to toggle between across and down The active cell is highlighted in blue Start typing in the word Hit [...]
(Excerpted from the book, From Spark to Flame: Fanning Your Passion & Ideas into Money-making Magazine Articles that Make a Difference which is currently being revised and updated.) Growing up, one of my favorite places to spend summer vacation was along the coast of North Carolina at Atlantic Beach, and one of my fondest memories is of watching the automatic taffy-pulling machine. Into one end of this magical machine, the owner would pour the ingredients for [...]
Shortly after discovering that my “clan of cats” that will appear in my upcoming novel, Junkyard Dogs, reside in the abandoned Renwick Smallpox Hospital on Kennedy Island, I shared this research with my wife, Ann, who’s always ready to share her own ideas, many of which appear in my stories as well. As I finished sharing my research with her, she added, “And the cats that now live on Kennedy Island migrated from the Island of [...]
I would have to say that as a fiction author I have a love/hate relationship to research or at least a like/dislike one. One thing I dislike about research is that it can be a nearly bottomless pit into which I can lose myself spending far more hours than I want when what I most want to do is just start writing. On the other hand, I very much like it when in the process of [...]
So, remember, my favorite question to pose to readers is: “If you could go on a mission with the Eco-team of Ra-Kit the magic cat, Sampson, the flying dog, and young Zak, what mission to help the animals of Earth would you choose?” As I mentioned in the last posting, this question has also spawned some interesting results already. One young girl who participated in one of the first Readup said she’d want to go on [...]
This past year, two life-changing events came together in one of those perfect storm scenarios that unfortunately don’t seem to happen enough in my life as a writer. Both would be what most people would consider ‘bad things.' Certainly, the COVID-19 pandemic ranks right up there with bad things in my life, though fortunately so far I’ve not lost any friends or family members to it. The second ‘bad thing’ was a growing level of frustration [...]
Did you miss part one of this article? Then go here. Let’s fast forward a few years from that summer in 1960 when my next-door-neighbor librarian, Mrs. Crabtree bought me a stack of books that would transform me into a joyful lifelong reader. But before we teleport ourselves forward in time, let me explain what I mean by the term, joyful lifelong reader. In this country and throughout much of the world, it’s inevitable that most [...]
