Ramblings on Writing Spaces

Growing up, all my stories and poems and songs and plays - even my first couple of books - went into spiral notebooks. They were badly smudged, with that pesky left-hander pencil smear across most of the pages. I can still remember the smell of pencil shavings and the satisfying rustle of pages turning. I [...]

Names of Strength and Whimsy in Literature

While researching names for my next book, I began thinking of all the names I've always loved from my favorite stories. What makes a good name, exactly? Does it need to have a certain sound? A particular meaning? A "feel" to it - happy, solemn, playful or fateful? I came up with a list of several [...]