by MontanaCoauthor | Nov 28, 2025 | News, Sketchbook
Confession: I’m not crazy about Thanksgiving. There are several reasons for that, beginning with early memories of my mother being profoundly stressed out during the preparations for the holiday, often to the point of developing a migraine and running to her room to...
by MontanaCoauthor | Sep 6, 2021 | Sketchbook, Writing Process Tips
It’s still early September, but we’ve started to see the first flushes of fall color. In Montana, our mid- and late-summers have become incredibly hot, dry, and smoky. So it’s hard to tell if the trees are changing because it’s true-autumn, or because they are drying...
by MontanaCoauthor | Nov 21, 2020 | Sketchbook, Writing Process Tips
It hasn’t been the prettiest Autumn. Bitter cold—well below freezing—in early October, many trees hadn’t even lost their leaves yet when everything froze solid in shades of brown and gray. After that abrupt halt to our growing season, the deciduous trees and bushes...
by MontanaCoauthor | Sep 12, 2020 | Sketchbook, Writing Process Tips
I’m on a fractals kick, finding ways to apply them in my dual livelihood, both as a micro-farm manager and as a writer and book editor. If you’re not familiar with the concept of fractals, take a moment to read Life’s Universal Patterns by Eliot Kersgaard. It’s a...
by MontanaCoauthor | Jul 4, 2020 | News, Sketchbook
Why riots? Unfortunately, perhaps because they work. If a group peacefully protests for years, decades, generations, and sees little come of frank and courteous requests, and then upon protest fomenting into riot, we see responsive action, what can anyone make of...
by MontanaCoauthor | May 11, 2020 | Sketchbook, Writing Process Tips
The feeling I get when I thin out seedlings in my garden is so similar to how I feel when I begin removing scenes that aren’t making the cut in a manuscript. “But, but… I like that one. Really like it! Why can’t I leave things as is?” Well. Because crowded scenes...
