As if a switch was flipped, the incredible string of seemingly endless sunny days we've been having here in Oregon abruptly ended, and today the rains came. For some people this is an occasion for sadness; the gray and wet bring them down. Not me....

This past weekend, while hiking on the Pacific Crest Trail with my wife, Debbie, I found myself contemplating the title of my new middle grade novel. On a school visit to Wilson Elementary in Corvallis, Oregon a few days before, a fifth grader had...

I'm happy to announce that STORM MOUNTAIN will be coming out as an audiobook. This is not a first for me; several of my novels and picture books are available in that format. Still, I'm particularly excited, as it provides a different way to exper...

I'm back from two road trips, one sailing with vagabond friends on Washington's Puget Sound. Below is a photo of me at the tiller. I loved the physics of the wind across the sails -- an invisible force with the power to move a two-ton boat. In the...

August is mountain time in Oregon -- hiking, backpacking, climbing, mountain biking. It's also writing time. I've been mixing the two, with good results. I've never completely understood the expression have your cake and eat it, too, but I think w...

Heading out for a three-day backpacking trip in the Eagle Creek drainage. Taking my notebook and pen for some daily writing. Have notebook will travel. Ah . . .

This past weekend I celebrated my birthday with my family by climbing at Smith Rock State Park. (Better late than never; I actually turned 61 on July 13, when I was teaching at the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA summer residency.) Below is my da...

Normal 0 0 1 32 186 1 1 228 11.773 0 0 0 I’m still on a bit of an adrenaline high after climbing a 300+ foot multi-pitch route called Moscow (red line below) in Smith Rock State Park in Central Oregon. Normal 0 0 1 79 451 3 1 553 11.773 0 0 0 I le...

. . . where a sampling of Vermont College of Fine Arts faculty (past and present) have gathered for a retreat. As you can deduce from the photo below, the weather is cool and blustery. But the company is warm and sparkling with wit and wisdom. Wri...

Last weekend was one for rock climbing and camping with my family in the desert of Central Oregon. Particularly inspiring was my son-in-law, Alex, who was born without a left hand. Despite the obvious limits, he climbs with as much enthusiasm and ...

I woke up on Sunday morning with a picture book idea that I have not been able to shake. (If I can shake it, then I figure it's probably not worth pursuing. If it insists in staying in my mind, then there must be something there.) This morning I h...

Many thanks to all the great kids and educators at Hodgkins Elementary in Hodgkins, Illinois for welcoming me on Tuesday. And especially to Tracy Cleveland, librarian extraordinaire. We talked writing process all day long, and I even got some advi...

He was a wild thing, fearlessly breaking new ground. May we all be so brave and creative.

This week I'm putting on my editor's hat and responding to both critical and creative writing from my five students in the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA program in creative writing. They are all super bright and great writers, so the process is...

Software issues reared their ugly head again, and so I've jumped ship with this blog. As you can see, it's now hosted on Posteruos. I'm looking forward to getting back in a regular blogging groove again. But not right this minute. Along with being...

4/14/12 -- The blog software I use -- Adobe Contribute --had been acting up for a while, but now, suddenly and inexplicably -- is working fine again. I didn't do anything to fix it; it fixed itself. Technology. It's a love hate thing, but mostly l...

3/12/12 -- Last Wednesday, flying home after 2.5 weeks of school visits in Arkansas, Alabama, and North Carolina, it occurred to me that it had been months since I'd made any real progress with my writing. Sure, I'd spent time at the computer work...

3/10/12 -- I'm just back from a 2.5 week school visit trip to Arkansas, Alabama, and North Carolina. Great school, great teachers, great kids. But with so much traveling and speaking going on, plus responding to packets of work from my stellar stu...

1/27/12 -- Trips to Kinnelon, NJ and Mill City, OR have kicked off school visits for the year. Next I'm headed to Bakersfield, CA, but not before a weekend in the mountains with my family. Skiing and snowshoeing are on the agenda, plus evenings ar...

1/24/12 -- Software issues have kept me from posting recently, but have now been resolved. Whew! I'm back, both figuratively and literally -- back to blogging, and back in Oregon after an intense and stimulating ten-day residency at the Vermont Co...