A Saturday in Bastrop – Cowboy Poetry There aren’t many events left where the main attractions are folding chairs, acoustic guitars, and people who know how to coil a rope properly. So naturally, I...
In November 2025, before either novel was fully underway, I wrote this scene based on a story told to me years earlier. The names Mary Ellen and Chester (Chet) Rawlins were already forming, though I...
The Hard Work of Empathy The question came from someone whose judgment I respected, which made it harder to dismiss. He was widely read and wrote serious, academically minded reviews of books and...
The Thirteen Minute Guide You bought this book because you want to know how a seventy-nine-year-old first-time novelist wrote two novels totaling more than 160,000 words and published them in less...
On Writing at 80 Given on 6/3/26 I want to start by reading a story. It’s the scene that started all of this — the first thing I wrote that made me think: maybe there’s a book here. These...
Writers Workshop flash fiction Mike Richwine 5.29.26. 500 words Introduction: I have become interested in flash fiction recently. Flash fiction is a form of storytelling that attempts to create a...
Time as a Thing If time were a thing—would it be red, blue, green, yellow, black, or clear? Solid, hollow, thin, short, or tall? Could you see through it— see the back of it, look at it from the side...
— the em dash I’ve always read sentences aloud in my head. Even when I’m skimming. Especially then. Rhythm gives things away long before meaning does. Some sentences want to stop. Others want to turn...