I just finished reading Irene Pepperberg's wonderful book Alex & Me, about her work and relationship with Alex, the African Grey parrot who became internationally renowned for his cognitive and communications skills, including being able to hold simple conversations, spell simple words, and do simple math. Turns out he could ...

Online, July 6 - August 3 The 7 Secrets of the Prolific: The Basics of Joyful Production SavvyAuthors.com More info / To register Inspiration exists and is available to everyone at almost any time. Underproductivity, procrastination, and blocks are solvable problems. The secret to achieving a state of near-perpetual inspiration ...

Last week, the publishing world was abuzz with the news that bestselling science fiction author John Scalzi signed a movie-star-like $3.4 million publishing deal for 10 books. Scalzi is someone I admire enormously, not just for his writing and career success, but because he's a genuinely nice guy, both offline (I've seen ...

Reblogged from the Thesis Whisperer. The anonymous author of this piece, originally entitled "What's it like to Finish?", does a great job of articulating how even a great success, like finishing a thesis, will almost always yield some unwanted consequences. Often we at least intuit these, and the fear of ...

Don't forget my upcoming online classes! ALL writers are invited to take the next two classes, including fiction, nonfiction, academic, nonprofit, business, and "other" writers. Online classes are cheap, convenient, fun, and there's lots of free parking. :-) Plus, you'll get loads of support and individual attention. - Hillary Online ...

Late notice, but I'll be doing a double workshop on (1) how to do joyful vegan activism, and (2) writing productivity TOMORROW, Saturday, April 25, from 2:00 - 5:00 p.m.  Details here. You can come to one or both workshops - both will be lively and fun! You are also ...

Kari Sperring - I've just been reading Hillary Rettig on writing (recommended to me by Stephanie Burgess and I am very grateful to her for that, for it is excellent). One of the things she writes about is how invested writers become in our work and its reception. It can ...

"Do Money Woes Spur Creativity or Stifle It?" This was the dingbat question editors of the New York Times Bookends column considered worth debating this week. I'll share my full comment on the piece in a moment, but first: can you even imagine asking this about practitioners in any non-arts ...