Most times when I'm invited to speak at a conference, someone introduces me by reading the short bio provided. But this past week at the Southeastern Writers' Association Conference, my friend, the Georgia judge and novelist Lori Duff, introduced me. She started off by warning she might ...
In a recent letter, you were told that at the APS Retirement Dinner I didn’t honor the retirees and talked only about myself. What I did was spend thirty seconds establishing that as a teacher myself, I have some understanding how hard their jobs are. In the remaining four minutes of my talk I said: “Let me thank you for working so hard for so long to bring to fruition that vision that burned within you, that fire that drove you to achieve all that you have and which inspired you to help others and take care of our students here at APS. You have proven your commitment and ...
Northern Michigan is so beautiful at this time of year. This past weekend my husband and I enjoyed a wind-tossed hike along Lake Huron’s shoreline. We took time to simply wade in the warm shallows and watch the geese couples call their goslings to safety while a gaggle of native swans bobbed on the offshore waves. It was so refreshing after our long winter. In our dating years (we met in high school) I was woefully ignorant of the great outdoors. I grew up in town and enjoyed being outside. I wore out a pair of flip flops every summer. I climbed trees, swam in the Thunder Bay ...
There is no valid argument that mothers aren’t the most selfless people on Earth. There’s the endless laundry, the cooking, the organizing. “I try to make your life easier,” my wife likes to say to our girls. There’s also the emotional support, the right words at the right ...
The World Cup is kicking off here in the United States and for the next five weeks, a sport most Americans cannot be bothered to watch will bring the rest of the planet to our doorstep. They are already arriving. Germans, Spaniards, Egyptians, Australians, every continent but Antarctica is ...
Last year Microsoft Research reported on the 10 jobs most threatened by artificial intelligence. Should I, dear reader, be running scared? Historians are No. 2 on the list. The report says 91% of what historians do is pretty much covered by AI queries. Uh-oh. I majored in history in college and went on to get a master's. In the movie "Animal House," Bluto laments throwing "seven years of college down the drain." I guess the good news is maybe I only wasted six. Eventually, I pivoted to writing, with five novels published and another coming next year. And of course, there's this ...
