Write with TLC

I'm always incredulous when someone tells me they don't read books. I don't understand how one exists in the world without reading books - nonfiction, fiction, poetry, etc. - but particularly nonfiction. Nonfiction gives us glimpses into history. It explains scientific research. It helps us better understand medical research. Nonfiction shows us the stories of the people who have changed the world. Nonfiction provides the knowledge to solve problems and navigate the world in which we all live. Nonfiction provokes thought while reminding us there are human beings attached to the events happening in the world currently as well as historical events.  Nonfiction can teach cooking, sewing, crocheting, golfing, programming, marketing, trading, and myriad other things. Nonfiction explores all aspects of life and provides readers with a way to expand their knowledge base. People might think they never read nonfiction, but we all do in one way or another. Any time we try to ...

Let me tell you a story... Let me paint you a whole new world to immerse yourself in for just a little while. A world where justice prevails and conflict is resolved. A world where people live happily ever after. We know these stories aren't real, but they allow us to immerse ourselves in dreams of the world we wish we lived in. They also allow us to experience things we will never experience in real life. I discovered the power of fiction as a child, and fell in love with the stories that changed my life. Fiction gave me the opportunity to envision a future beyond the farm where I grew up. Fiction showed me a world beyond the small farming community where I never quite felt like I fit in. Fiction even gave me my first glimpse into cultures and people across time and space. I devoured the stories I read. Looking back I realize I was searching for my place in the world. I was searching for a place where I would fit in because I never felt like I really fit in anywhere. I s...

Several of my teacher friends and others who work with youth have asked me if I have any ideas about how to get young people excited about poetry. I'm always a little surprised by the question. I write poetry. I don't teach poetry. Still, I find the question thought provoking. So I started thinking about what first got me excited about poetry... But, I can't remember. It seems to be poetry was always bubbling inside me. That said, I didn't always enjoy studying poetry, and there are times when I still don't understand the hubbub about one poet or another when I study their work. It happens. It's okay. The more I thought about it the more I came back to one single thing. Find the poetry in your audience's, aka your class's, life. Show them the poetry in songs, in commercials, in the nursery rhymes of their youth. Show them poetry by contemporary poets before asking them to dissect poems filled with language that feels foreign to them. While I don...

I grew up not thinking about whether or not I was poor. My parents owned our farm, but some years were tough financially. My earliest years we lived in a trailer until my parents built a house. They paid it off fairly quickly. I don't know how quickly exactly but I know they didn't take out a 30 year mortgage like most people today do.  But... There were tight years. My Daddy worked three jobs most of my life, and all of my childhood. He was a farmer full-time. He logged when the weather permitted. He worked as a mechanic/salesman for Turner Tractor Sales  in the winter months.  He never complained. He worried, but he never complained. He found ways to make it work. Daddy's idea of retirement was to sell the farm where I grew up and buy a smaller one, so he still farms and rebuilds tractors. My Mom was a housewife, but being a farmer's housewife also meant she did her share of gardening, fieldwork, and other farm chores. She also took on other jobs from time t...

Dr. Fox and me Recently, while making my annual donation to a scholarship fund in honor of the scholarship I received that allowed me to attend Eastern Kentucky University ,  The Dr. James W. Fox Student Research Award jumped out at me. I didn't remember seeing it on the list before. I wondered if it was a fund honoring my former adviser and professor, Dr. James Fox. I did a quick Google search. I found his obituary which included a request for people to donate to the award fund in lieu of flowers. As I read about his 2008 death, I felt a tear slide down my cheek and a sense of sadness combined with gratitude and joy well up in my heart. I smiled.  My instructors, particularly my Corrections instructors, were an interesting group of people, but Dr. Fox was a special man. His obituary refers to his dedication to "his calling as an educator" and the way he "inspired commitment in his students." I can attest to both. Part of the way he inspired that commi...

Last week Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced that she intends to dismantle the Dear Colleague Letter Guidelines that have given survivors of sexual assault more respect in the reporting and investigatory process of sexual assault by utilizing the protections in Title IX to a safe learning environment. Shortly before her announcement I posted  Sexual Assault Happens... Then What? , my post to raise awareness about the importance of taking campus sexual assault seriously and urge people to stand up for survivors. Upon learning of Secretary DeVos' decision to dismantle those guidelines, I wrote a letter to the current President of EKU, Michael T. Benson. As an alumna of EKU and a survivor of campus sexual assault I feel a duty to urge my alma mater to be a leader in the adherence of Title IX using the Dear Colleague Letter Guidelines to take campus sexual assault seriously and providing the support survivors need to move forward. Here is the open letter ...

I started this post over a year ago after I watched The Hunting Ground , a documentary about sexual assault on campuses and the way universities handle sexual assault on campus. I've come back to it multiple times but have hesitated to publish it yet I couldn't bring myself to delete it. So... With today's announcement regarding the plan to eliminate Title IX protection for survivors, I must speak up. I can no longer be silent. The Hunting Ground affected me deeply. I stopped it several times when I needed to think and feel and cry and rewind to listen again. (Currently available on  Netflix and streaming or DVD purchase on Amazon.) As I watched, many thoughts went through my mind. I am still dumbfounded by the way universities dismiss and/or minimize sexual assault complaints. I suppose admitting the number of campus sexual assaults on their individual campuses might deter some potential students, but... Sexual assault happens. It happens in every community. It happ...

As I worked through the course, Learning to Learn and read the book, A Mind For Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra) , I came to realize I'd practiced many of the techniques taught in the class in different areas of my life but without deep understanding of how or why they worked. I often didn't consider things that worked in one area of my life for another area. As I studied Learning to Learn, I began to make connections I'd never made before and felt energized to apply these techniques in new areas of my life, including writing. One common piece of advice in the writing world is to sit your butt in the chair and write. Get the words written. The idea is to take the muse out of the process, stop waiting for inspiration, and focus on getting words written. In this kind of focused writing, one to focus on the project at hand without being distracted by the multitude of other projects in the works. This allows one to free one's min...