I have donated my collection of books on writing to my local library. Why? We will get to that.The books were gathered over a period of 40 years or so. I didn’t publish my first novel until 2013, but I cannot recall a time I didn’t think about telling my stories on...

When I was asked to write an essay for the 25th Anniversary Edition of "The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963," I jumped at the chance. I had met Christoper Paul Curtis in 2014 in Las Vegas at the Newbery Awards presented by the American Library Association. Here is my...

A contract crew was in our neighborhood recently trimming trees away from power lines. I walked across the road to ask the crew chief if he would dump a couple loads from his woodchipper so I could line my garden paths. He said he would be glad to. Green woodchips...