Jonathon Larson’s “Tick Tick Boom” has left me wondering — I assumed the throbbing pain and loud clicking in my shoulder was a simple injury from a fall, but the physio suspects some underlying condition and insists I head straight to the emergency department. First though, I head home. I let my husband know, grab a notebook, reassure the kids…

Plunging into online dating is a daunting experience — One of the kids in my swimming class was terrified of the deep pool. I found his mother sitting poolside and asked if he’d had any traumatic experiences that might have caused it. “No,” she replied. “It’s me. I’m afraid of the water. I won’t even go in up to…

3 creative side-gigs for you to try too — I’ve been a working writer for over 12 years and the 70/20/10 rule is one I’ve always applied to my time. The 10 part is the most fun. Here’s how it works — I spend the majority of my writing time on work that pays, around 20% on testing out…

will you hop on board? — if i write this entire story in lowercase, i know it’ll make a lot of you mad. i know because i asked on twitter and received a resounding “that’s annoying.” don’t worry — i’ll switch to capitals soon. but i want to challenge you ( and myself) — are we…

I collect ways to die and my husband can’t stand it — The Queen just died and my husband, Ben, was surprised by my reaction. “A policeman came into the Prime Minister’s bedroom with a torch? That would have been a terrifying way to wake up,” I mumbled into my pillow after he came back to bed to share the news. “The…

Ask a Writer — Dear Kelly, How do you know what to keep and what to get rid of in your personal essay? Great question! Can I ask one back? How do you know you’ve got an essay readers will even care about? I’d suggest that’s the question you want to be asking yourself…