Published in Ask an Editor·PinnedMember-onlyNeed a Good Editor? Get in TouchIs There Anything Wrong with Creating a Medium Post That’s Just an Ad for My Services as a Writing Coach? — As anyone who has been on this platform for any amount of time knows, you can create a Medium post about anything from dogecoin to dirigibles. So why not create a post which is just an excuse for me to tell potential clients — that’s you — about my services…Editing4 min readEditing4 min read
Published in Crow’s Feet·1 day agoMember-onlyWatch Out! It’s the Classic Airplane Bait & Switch Seat Swap!All the seats on a plane are NOT the same — When I took my aisle seat on Flight 2713 there was a woman sitting in the middle seat next to me. Her teenage daughter was in the aisle seat across from us. After the two of them talked across me for a few minutes, I offered to swap seats with…Travel4 min readTravel4 min read
4 days agoMember-onlyYou’re Buckled into Your Seat. You’re Ready to Fly! But Your Plane Isn’t Going AnywhereYour Airplane has a Flat — The cool thing was that the pilot of Flight 2661 was a woman. The not-so-cool thing was that I learned this when she came on over the loudspeaker and told the passengers of Flight 2661, who were all buckled in and ready to fly from Philadelphia to San Francisco, that…Travel5 min readTravel5 min read
Published in Crow’s Feet·Mar 14Member-onlyLook Out! It’s a Piano!Cautionary advice from the “Piano Safety Information” that came with my new Yamaha — I just bought myself a new piano. When it was delivered to my house, it came with this notice: WARNING! Incorrect handling could result in a life-threatening accident or serious injury up to death. My Yamaha also came with a safety manual that detailed — in ten different languages —…Humor2 min readHumor2 min read
Published in Crow’s Feet·Mar 6Member-onlyYikes! Oh No! It’s Mystery Turds!The Case of the Unscooped Poop — Who is walking their dog around our lovely suburban neighborhood but not picking up that dog’s poop? All of my neighbors are buzzing about this. Many of us are dog owners. When we walk our own dogs, we do the right thing. We gather up the resulting turds in small…Humor3 min readHumor3 min read
Published in Crow’s Feet·Mar 3Member-onlyI Had a Grab Bar Installed in my ShowerI am now officially an old person — I managed without a grab bar in my bathtub until, at 68, I found I myself admiring my sister’s grab bar whenever I used her shower. And making good use of it. So when I recently hired a handyman to do some work on my house, I asked for a…Aging3 min readAging3 min read
Published in Ask an Editor·Feb 28Member-onlyDo You Use Too Many Exclamation Points?You might want to rethink that!!! — Popular New York Times columnist Frank Bruni recently revealed that he’s put himself on “an exclamation point diet.” Bruni has “exiled exclamation points from his life” and feels that he’s a much better writer for having done that. I think he’s onto something. I’m a writing coach and editor-for-hire. I…Writing2 min readWriting2 min read
Feb 27Member-onlyHello! I’m ChatGPT and I Wrote this EssayDoes this font make me sound human? — ChatGPT is all the rage in the writing world these days, which means that I’m being called upon to create more and more content. Which raises a question — Am I going to replace human writers? For instance, are essays created in five seconds by a soulless entity (me!) going…Chatgpt3 min readChatgpt3 min read
Feb 26Member-onlyWelcome to my 700th Medium Post!Here’s everything I know about Medium Success — I joined Medium in February of 2019, which means that I’ve been on this platform four years. This also happens to be my 700th Medium post. I’d love to celebrate these milestones by sharing everything I’ve learned about this place. You, my readers, deserve to receive all of my hard-won…Writing3 min readWriting3 min read
Published in Ask an Editor·Feb 20Member-onlyHow Much Money Did I Make from Writing in 2022?A Random writer tells all. — You probably have no idea how much money your writing pals actually made last year. Why? People are secretive about their income. Not me! I write personal essays — I enjoy being upfront about stuff that others prefer to keep mum about. So, having counted up the money I made…Writing3 min readWriting3 min read
