Even though Adequate Yearly Progress is a novel, it owes a big debt to work by journalists and memoirists – so much so that there’s a list of non-fiction books listed in the acknowledgments. You’ll find the complete list below. Some of the books are specifically education-related, some not. All are well-written, informative, and worth a read if you’re interested in the topics they cover. (more…)

The second chapter of Adequate Yearly Progress: A Novel takes place at a back-to-school faculty meeting. As a celebration of all the teachers who have been attending these meetings around the country, you can read the full chapter here. (more…)

If this page is still live and you’ve found your way to it, that means I’m still (somewhat more quietly than before) sending out signed stickers for people’s books. (more…)

Recently I condensed my notes from 12 years of courses at the Miami Writers Institute and 12 years of building my own writing career into 12 days of emails. The notes from these courses contained many gems on the “do’s” of writing. But what about the “don’ts?” Some of the most interesting thoughts on writing – the pet peeves, the off-the-cuff comments – showed up in a simple search for the word “don’t.” Here are some things that top authors think you should definitely NOT DO. (more…)

Here are some of the best pieces of advice from 12 years of writing classes at the Miami Writers Institute. I’ve condensed some of the lessons learned from these classes, and from 12 years of building my own career as an author, into 12 days of emails. This post is a collection of great one-liners on how to build better characters. (more…)