One day several years ago—most likely during some winter break from school—I came into the kitchen at breakfast time. At first, nothing seemed wrong. But closer inspection revealed that younger daughter Molly, who was sitting at the island, was looking forlorn with a lone tear trekking down each cheek. Older …

During the last few days, there have been times when I felt like I was one thread yank away from completely unraveling. Not because of a particular event or situation or heartache. Just because … life. Life that includes (but is not limited to) lost contact lenses, malfunctioning garage-door openers, skyrocketing …

Even if we don’t make our living off words, we all write every day. Think about it. Whether it goes out in the form of emails, tweets and texts, work-related memos, blog posts and comments, birthday cards or Facebook updates, communication is continually flowing from our fingertips. And in an …

Today’s a big day in our country. It’s been a long time coming, and by that, I mean a LONG time coming. Somehow, it didn’t seem appropriate to post another piece in my “Faith, Fear & the Life of a Writer” series this week. Not that faith, fear and even writing aren’t …

I’ve had the opportunity to work with several great editors in my career. People who appreciated the value of a perfectly turned phrase, who explained when it was better to use a long dash or a semicolon, who taught me to write the language of my readers rather than the …