Life is Better Without a Life Partner — My friend Deb recently mentioned that she hadn’t gotten a good night’s sleep in 24 years. “Why not?” I asked. Deb’s husband, as it turns out, can’t fall sleep unless the television is on. Deb can’t fall asleep if the television is on. But she defers to hubby’s need to…

Art is Whatever I Say It Is. — You know when you take a photo with your phone and sometimes the phone takes an extra photo afterwards, so you get an unintended snapshot of whatever happens to be next to or nearby the subject of that photo?

Anybody Have a Clue What This Is?? — I check my Medium Partner Program earnings once a day to see how much money I’ve got coming to me. And once a week or so, a set of numbers turns up at the top of the page that I’ve come to think of as my Shadow Stats. It’s an…

So make sure you spell his name right — Who, you might ask, is Coach Tony? Coach Tony is Tony Stubblebine, the CEO of Medium. In other words? Coach Tony is the man who is driving this bus. Ever since he took over last July he’s been making changes to this platform, and posting about the changes he intends…

Here’s What Decades of Writing Have Taught Me — I write every day. I’ve been writing every day for decades. My work has appeared everywhere from the New York Times to the Funny Times, I’ve been on both The Today Show and Morning Edition, and my stories have been included in 16 Chicken Soup for the Soul collections. I’ve Been In 13 Chicken Soup Collections. If You Want to Break In, Here’s My Advice When they learn that I’ve been in 13 Chicken Soup for the Soul collections, writers often ask me for advice about how…medium.com

It’s not you. It’s me. — If I enjoy your work, I’ll subscribe to you so I’ll be notified the instant you publish something new. And yet? You may have noticed that I don’t actually read every one of your posts. Wondering why? I’ll tell you. Here’s why I didn’t read your latest Medium Masterpiece: It’s…

One Degree of Separation from a future President — It was 2002. I was recently divorced, and to make ends meet I was babysitting. I took care of other people’s kids when my own son was at my ex-husband’s house. I love kids and I’m good with them, so babysitting was always a joy. I live in a modest…

Free Writing Advice from a Pro (Me!) — I’m a writer, but I’m also a writing coach and editor-for-hire. For decades, I’ve worked with writers to improve and publish their prose. I’ve worked with beginning writers and accomplished writers, and every kind of writer in between, on projects ranging from 500-word humor pieces to 500-page novels. Need a Good Editor? Get in Touch Is There Anything Wrong with Creating a Medium Post That’s Just an Ad for My Services as a Writing Coach?medium.com

Please Don’t Tell Me About It — Gardening Season is going full throttle, which means that many of my friends are outside, knees in the soil, tending their gardens. If you’re one of them, this also means that when I stop by, you’ll want to show me your garden, leading me through it and telling me the…