The little boy stands in the center of the dusty road, his vacant eyes looking far beyond the camera pointed at him.  Flies buzz around his head.  He is covered in a crust of dirt. His belly extends outward in ironic contrast to his bony arms and legs. We’ve all seen the pictures. We all feel sorry for him, and for the other children like him around the world. And then I go to Burger King. Sigh.   This weekend, our family is blessed with a chance to invest just a little of our time to make a huge difference. […]

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Happy October y’all! The leaves are beginning to turn, the air is crisp, and I’m coming down with my annual case of bronchitis. All my former coworkers can now jump for joy at not having to hear me cough incessantly on conference calls for the next eight weeks.  Yay! This month, I’m joining my friend, creative coach Jim Woods in Writers Unite, a movement of bloggers to stop focusing on numbers and statistics and renew the focus on writing that matters. I’m climbing up out of a “slumpy” time of discouragement, and I’m looking forward to Writers Unite to launch […]

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Welcome to Fiction Friday. Every Friday I share with y’all a glimpse into the mind of Zach the Zombie and some of his friends. Last week, Zach mysteriously stopped his climb. Today, he’ll try again. You know the drill–this is not really edited. I appreciate your grace and forgiveness for all the flaws!   I walk more slowly back to our camp. Delaying the conversation as long as I can. “Arthur, I don’t know what happened. The spot was perfect. I was halfway up the wall. I felt great. And then I didn’t. I was climbing back down like it wasn’t […]

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This weekend was amazing…but also exhausting. For an introvert like me, that much social contact in that short a time just wears me out.  So today, I’m going to sit back, enjoy a whole pot of coffee and just chill with the critters in the back yard. Oh, and work on drawing a bunch of visual notes from the Quitter Conference for Wednesday’s post. In the meantime, thinking of coffee reminds me of an amusing list that a friend and I were putting together last week… The worst coffee habits (well, at least the worst ones we could think of during […]

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Wow. What a weekend.   So many amazing dreamers dreaming amazing dreams. So many online friends became in-real-life friends. Encouragement Support Hope That’s what the Quitter community is all about.  Recovering the ability to dream, learning practical ways to make your dream real without throwing away your livelihood. Quitter isn’t about quitting by giving up, it’s about finding a way to bridge passion and responsibility. To do what you love and not become a slave to your bills. It’s how I hustled my way to becoming a real writer. So I’m kinda proof that it works. During the conference, Jon […]

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