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 […]
Writing is a solitary effort, a task pursued in private. Yet the result is public. Bridging that gap, between originator and audience, sits the critique group. A properly functioning assemblage will help members distinguish between their junk and their jewels, serving to keep the drivel under wraps while propelling the exceptional to greater heights. While […]
By Peter DeHaan, Ph.D. With allergy season upon us, I recall a strange realization from a couple years back – after I sneezed. I noticed my sternutation sounded just like my dad. Not that there was anything wrong with how Dad sneezed, just that it was distinctive. At first, I chalked this up to heredity, […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD By definition, the recession is over. The worst is behind us and good times are ahead – at least in theory. This recovery, however, is proving to be slow. It is dawdling along, in an unhurried manner, unaware that we yearn for it sooner rather than later – and that […]
The following is from the 2010/11 MPA Magazine Handbook: Magazine audiences are growing – and young adults read heavily: The number of magazine readers has grown more than 4% over the past five years. Ninety-three percent of adults overall and 96% of adults under age 35 read magazines.