In what might have been 1979, I was invited to a nearby elementary school to talk to students about writing. The children were led into the school gym, where they sat cross-legged on the floor while ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. I always speak to you, my compassionate readers, from my heart. So, I want to tell you that this is the hardest time I’ve had ...

My first journalism job was long ago, covering events at my high school for the local paper. Writing this column is the second. I've been at it since last April, and that first anniversary has put me ...

The phone call surprised me, 25 summers ago. Maureen Houston, editor of the Belleville News Democrat’s Sunday Magazine, asked if I was interested in writing a column. I told Maureen that I’d think ...

Beautiful writing has always moved me, like this line from “The Dragon” by Ray Bradbury: "Now only the night moved in the souls of the two men bent by their lonely fire in the wilderness; darkness ...

Twenty years! I’ve been writing this column for 20 years. As I said back on the 15th anniversary, “except for teaching, that’s the longest time I’ve ever devoted to a single activity.” And I’ve ...