Have you ever read an article and wondered about the author’s gender? I have; then I check the byline only to be stymied with an indeterminate first name, such as “Terry” or a “Lynn” or merely their first and second initials. Towards that end, I recently stumbled upon an interesting website, The Gender Guesser. The […]
This week I received my quarterly health insurance bill. Boy, was I in for a shock. It showed a 49% increase in my premium. Convinced it was in error, I naively called the company’s call center to get it corrected. The rep was nonchalant about the whole thing, acting as though a 49% increase was […]
Last week I blogged about attending the ACW Conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Coming up is another conference: Breathe Christian Writers Conference. I am in much anticipation of this event—and have been for the past year. I thoroughly enjoyed last year’s conference and heartily recommend it this year. For 2011, Breathe will be October 14 […]
Last weekend I attended the Christian Writers Conference in Grand Rapids Michigan. It was my second time at that particular conference, with last year being my first writing conference ever. Last year, I was the proverbial deer caught in headlights. I was overwhelmed with how a writing conference functions and the voluminous information—much of it […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD Last year my local phone company changed. There was much to-do surrounding this news, arriving in the form of frequent mailed communications and email messages and spanning several months. Throughout this, the phone company repeatedly promised that there would be no rate increases – all that would change was their […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD Promoted as “a customer service fable,” The Napkin, the Melon & the Monkey is ambitiously subtitled: How to Be Happy and Successful at Work and in Life by Simply Changing Your Mind. Let me confirm that I believe it lives up to its grandiose intention. The inside back cover notes […]
A few weeks ago in my “Critique Groups” post, I stated my desire to be in a writing critique group. I specified I wanted one that met in-person, as opposed to cyberspace. I am now rethinking that. I recently listened to a podcast entitled “The Care and Feeding of Writing Groups.” It was in the […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD Many of us love magazines, just as much as (if not more than) we love books. But economic woes combined with new media’s impact on these industries, the future of magazines has seemed dire at times. However, I recently found some positive facts about magazines in the 2010/11 MPA Magazine […]
I’ve mentioned writing contests a few times, but until recently, I’ve never entered one. Though it would be a nice bonus to win, my goal is to grow as a writer and share my work with others. In general, there are several benefits of writing contests: Other possible outcomes: Some contests require an entry fee. […]
I’m not sure if this is a malady common to all writers or the fact that I’m a recovering perfectionist, but I am never completely satisfied with what I have written. Regardless of how clever my sentence constructions, profound my insights, or delightful my vocabulary selections, there is always that nagging inner voice whispering that […]