We have writing classes and language classes. We have writing conferences.

Our used book store is a fundraiser for Hospice. The community donates books and Hospice puts them on the shelf. We sell them and the money goes to patient care.

In July, we have a huge conference for mystery writers, where the best publishers come out looking for new talent. We also have a travel writing conference. Hundreds of people come through this conference and are now working as travel journalists.

Writing a check or sending a toy to a child in need is generous, but going to a shelter with your child to deliver that toy will have a much bigger impact.

I see manuscripts and books that are spoiled for the literary reader because they are one long stream of top-of-the-head writing, a writer telling a story without concern for precision or freshness in the use of language. Some of this storytelling reads as if it were spoken rather than written, stuffed with tired images that pop into the writer's head because they are so familiar. The top of the head is fit for growing hair, but not for generating fine prose.

Every word first looks around in every direction before letting itself be written down by me.