Articles

Speaker’s High

Can you get addicted to public speaking? I joined Toastmasters for the usual reasons, but ended up with much more than presentation skills. Toastmasters is an international organization that helps its members improve their public speaking and leadership skills. I wrote about my initial Toastmasters experience (“Public Speaking: Mastering the Fear“, The Voice Magazine Nov… Read more »

Falling Asleep in the Room of Tiny Drawers

Journal Entry 20 Feb/2017 7:58 a.m. So blocked. Couldn’t sleep worth a hoot last night. The day has just begun and already I’m exhausted. My novel’s heroine, once so full of promise, is stuck in a happy marriage (what was I thinking?). I can’t even come up with a first obstacle except for the clichéd… Read more »

Throw Kindness Around Like Confetti

February is such a meh month. The memories of December’s magic are about as stale as a piece of leftover fruitcake, the dark winter days feel like they will never end and spring will never arrive. If a mood-boosting tropical vacation is out of the question, what can you do to get out of the… Read more »

Celluloid Psychology – Split

Split is billed as a psychological thriller film starring James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Betty Buckley. Kevin, the main character in Split, suffers from a condition called dissociative identity disorder (DID) involving 24 different identities. While he sees his therapist regularly, this does not stop him from succumbing to the “beast” inside him, and he… Read more »

So this is Thirty

I think there are often expectations, landmarks we are supposed to hit by certain ages. We should graduate high school by 18, university by 22, then marriage, and kids before 30. While this is rarely the case anymore, it can still be difficult not to measure your accomplishments by this perceived scale of success. As… Read more »

Editorial – A Turn for the Worse

My reading lately has taken a turn for the worse. By that I mean I find my attention caught by stories of impending doom and gloom. And no, I’m not just talking about the endless parade of news stemming from the U.S. President’s office. I mean I’m reading about the coming of AI and automation… Read more »

The Gummy-Bear Method for Motivation

Motivation tricks are the little games we play to cajole ourselves into persevering through a disagreeable task. Some days, students have no problem getting through several hours of solid studying while, on other days, every minute buried in a textbook seems like eternal agony. AU student Amanda Gillis recently posted a photo of her newly-adopted… Read more »