A writer friend of mine ruminated briefly on age and publishing success on his Facebook…
Western Colorado Writers' ForumFebruary 25, 2026
During COVID, when classrooms met virtually, I was a guest speaker for a high school…
Western Colorado Writers' ForumDecember 24, 2025
Most writers seem to have a kind of wheelhouse, a place where it's clear they're…
Western Colorado Writers' ForumNovember 28, 2025
I went to Main Street Bagels this afternoon to write, as I occasionally do. I’m…
Western Colorado Writers' ForumOctober 31, 2025
In 2019, my publisher suggested that the time had come for me to release a…
Western Colorado Writers' ForumSeptember 28, 2025
I developed a theory about teaching and learning during my time teaching high school and…
Western Colorado Writers' ForumAugust 30, 2025
A professor in the U.C. Davis graduate creative writing program asked me once, “Why science…
Western Colorado Writers' ForumJuly 30, 2025
Here on the Western Slope of Colorado, we are surrounded by nature, a diverse ecology,…
Western Colorado Writers' ForumJuly 15, 2025
I spent much of my career teaching high school writers. They know a lot! Certainly…
Western Colorado Writers' ForumJune 29, 2025
When Melody reached out and asked me to write something for the blog, the only…
Western Colorado Writers' ForumJune 18, 2025
It’s been about a year since I pitched the idea of a mixed-genre anthology for…
Western Colorado Writers' ForumMay 28, 2025
I’m a pretty simple guy. A poster, a bumper sticker, a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon,…
Western Colorado Writers' ForumApril 23, 2025
Imagine the earliest humans gathered around a campfire while saber-tooth cats, dire wolves, and the…
Western Colorado Writers' ForumMarch 26, 2025
Submitting written work for publication can be daunting. Written work is often very personal, either…
Western Colorado Writers' ForumMarch 19, 2025
Last month I talked about what goes outside the quotes when writing dialogue. Obviously, quite…
Western Colorado Writers' ForumFebruary 26, 2025
One of my favorite subgenres of fiction is magical realism. Popularized by well-known Latin American…
Western Colorado Writers' ForumFebruary 17, 2025
When I started writing stories, I hated dialogue. Everything I wrote sounded stupid and stiff,…
Western Colorado Writers' ForumJanuary 28, 2025
When I'm teaching character to students, I tell them they have eight ways to let…
Western Colorado Writers' ForumDecember 24, 2024
You’ve written and revised your writing and now you have some finished work you’d like…
Melody JonesDecember 20, 2024
Enjoy this extensive list of Tips and Tricks for Writing Short Stories! - WCWF …
Western Colorado Writers' ForumNovember 26, 2024
Long ago and far away, when I first became an accidental entrepreneur in the digital…
Western Colorado Writers' ForumNovember 19, 2024
I remember when I was a kid, my mom had this rule: my sisters and…
Western Colorado Writers' ForumOctober 29, 2024
I've been fascinated by the plot device of a character choosing between nobility and practicality…
Western Colorado Writers' ForumOctober 23, 2024
{Singing}: “It's the most “spook-tac-u-lar” time of the year! With black cats and witches, and…
Western Colorado Writers' ForumSeptember 27, 2024
Sometimes the principles behind good writing seem so simple to me, but they're simple like…
Western Colorado Writers' ForumSeptember 24, 2024
I’m writing this piece from a special writing space of mine. It’s an old, floral,…
Western Colorado Writers' ForumSeptember 11, 2024
I joined my first fiction critique group in the early 80s, and I’ve been in…
Western Colorado Writers' ForumAugust 28, 2024
You know, it’s sad. I often attend workshops, classes, and other events where I encounter…
Western Colorado Writers' ForumAugust 17, 2024
If you are an in-practice writer and have respect for nonfiction, I think you should…
Western Colorado Writers' ForumJuly 27, 2024
