I'm Trick Dog Trainer and the author two books, the memoir, For the Love of a Dog, (Harmony Books), and the novel, Body Sharers (Rutgers University Press). My work is represented by Birch Literary Agency. Body Sharers placed among the finalists for the PEN/Hemingway Foundation Award for Best First Novel. Recent honors include finalist for the 2017 Frank McCourt Memoir Prize, winner of the 2016 Briar Cliff Review Nonfiction Award, winner of the 2013 Florida Review Editor’s Award, and a Best American Essays 2015 Notable Essay. My dogs moonwalk throughout the Tampa Bay area.
I recently learned that, as a child of the 1970’s, I was raised free-range. It makes for healthy chickens, and probably healthy humans too. Back then, free-range moms opened their legs and […]
1. Set aside unbroken blocks of time to chain yourself to your computer. Physical Therapist: Okay, how’s the sciatica? Me: Horrible. I’m having a real setback. Physical Therapist: I thought we were […]
Hi, my name is Lisa and I’m in my third year as president of the Upper Suncoast Dog Training Club. That means, basically, I drink and I throw things. Frisbees, tennis balls, […]
As you may have noticed, a tsunami of existential dread is sweeping creative writers and writing professors. The basic chorus of post-apocalyptic dread goes something like this: However, happily, the 2010 poet […]
I’ve had some Halloween wins in my time. The aces were always group costumes, especially my gang of friends who went together to Halloween swing dance parties. One year we were The […]
The news can be addictive. You know why? Because it’s all bad. Bad news is seductive. You like it—even if it makes you miserable. Despite cellphones, space travel, and Axe deodorant spray, […]
Does staying informed tune you into the zeitgeist or plummet you into paralysis? Are you able to stop the 24-hour news monster from gobbling up all your writing time? Do you secretly fear that if you unplug, your art […]
One of coolest things I ever did was design a Nature Writing Class for Eckerd College. We held class outdoors in nature preserves all over the county. My aim was to help […]
Is Your Writer Self Lonely, Frustrated, and Overwhelmed? Does it feel as if the demands of daily life keep pulling you away from your writing? You have to be a perfect parent, […]
Not too long ago, I began writing a psychological mystery about an internet-famous dog trainer who does public performances (think Super Collies). Then, at a mystery writers’ conference, an editor begged me […]
The Gloria Sirens 