by J.M. Phillippe It all starts with an idea. What if…? And then you have a choice — follow through with the idea, or don’t. Not following through is easy. You just have to avoid taking any action. But following through often means doing something new, stepping out of your comfort zone, taking some sort […]
by J.M. Phillippe This week, I am writing from home. In this particular case, home is the last home I lived in with my parents – a lovely house with a gorgeous pool in Santa Clarita, California. It has a special place in my heart — I even set my first novel in this town. […]
by J.M. Phillippe I am a know-it-all. This is not a confession I make likely, because being called a know-it-all when I was growing up was not a positive experience. And yet, I couldn’t help myself. I liked knowing things. I still like knowing things. It goes deeper than needing something to feel superior about […]
by J.M. Phillippe I’ve been hitting the keyboard hard lately, and even though I have adjusted my set up with cushions and things like that, there is still no escaping the fact that extended time writing is hard on the body. Healthy body movement is one of the things I struggle with most. I have […]
by J.M. Phillippe Two days before Christmas, I had to put my beloved cat Oscar down. The holidays have been hard for me for a very long time. Grief is like a shadow that is always with you, but changes size and shape depending on what light is around. On the brightest moments of the […]
by J.M. Phillippe I have had a very frustrating week, followed by a frustrating weekend. I suppose part of this is the nature of the holiday season — too many things squeezed into too little a space of time. Part of this is connected to my day-job and what feels like a never-ending and overwhelming […]
by J.M. Phillippe Sometimes, I feel stuck. Sometimes, all I have in me is a stream of consciousness dump… I am fumbling for words, searching my memory for rich sensory details, imagery and metaphor, a perfect picture painted with perspicacity, brought forth from my fertile imagination. I am new again, raw, an amateur who is […]
by J.M. Phillippe The news isn’t good again. I can’t remember the last time I read the news and felt anything other than dread and sadness. I feel like a collective anxiety has taken over most everyone I know. In times like these, it is important to remember to take care of yourself — and […]
J.M. Phillippe One of the most powerful feelings in the world is that moment when you realize that something you thought just happened to you, that only you understood or experienced (often with fear and/or shame), also happened to someone you know. Somehow sharing the experience changes how you feel about it. It shifts the […]
by J.M. Phillippe The numbers keep going up. At this point, it’s 59 people killed, and over 500 injured after another American mass shooting. When I was a journalism student, I learned about the power of framing a story. The best way to understand it is to think of taking a picture — there is […]