One of the things I dreaded about writing a book would be having to read it aloud to someone. I had this ridiculous belief that I could get away with just talking about my book. But in the last four year, I've had increasing opportunities to read to others and learned a number of things - mostly about myself. People come to readings for different reasons. Some are coming because they want to hear a work in an author's voice using the pacing, intonation, and tone the book was written in (I've...

Last March I went to the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point for a book launch. While there, I was able to talk to the press lab students. A question came up about how to write about a region or place. Even though I knew this question was coming, I didn't have the best answer. I broke into non-sequiturs that involve the speed at which people walk and how cold it is in Wisconsin. The professor then had to pull these jumbled thoughts together into a cohesive teaching moment for his...

Before you read any of this, please know I do not assume these next thoughts should be construed as my own established wisdom. If anything, I am trying to start a conversation about what constitutes wisdom. With that in mind I'd like to ask: what makes wisdom? Google says its, " the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment; the quality of being wise." So helpful. And the definition gets even more wonky when we insert a culture. Just to give an example of the difference...