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While my new column is about short fiction; short stories, novellas, novelettes, and flash, I want to start with some thoughts designed to help focus on writing, no matter what form it takes. Setting up time to write can be more challenging than choosing what form to write in, so I designed a DIY writing retreat to help me develop my writing practice. What I learned was that it takes more than just putting words on the page to keep my writing practice going. I need to nourish my body, my mind, and my soul.  DIY Writing Retreat Set-Up I...

Last month, on a cold February morning, I attended the funeral Mass of a colleague. As I sat in a pew, listening to the priest’s homily, in which he referenced the deceased’s work for the community, my thoughts turned to another colleague – and friend – we lost a month earlier. Andrea was a legend in funeral service in New York City. The daughter of a popular Brooklyn funeral director, she followed in his footsteps at a time when female funeral directors were rare. As her father had done before her, she hewed to tradition and ritual, and reinforced those...

  Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is a relationship. Relationships take time and trust — but trust is hard to earn and easy to lose. As with any relationship, DEI is a journey, not a destination. It’s not a check-the-box, one-and-done type of thing; it is a long-term commitment. Unfortunately, many organizations make the mistake of looking at DEI short-term vs. long-term. They reduce budgets during economic downturns, flex activities with the news cycle or structure programming around holidays and cultural celebrations (instead of weaving them throughout the year). To combat this inauthentic approach, I prefer the snackable approach to DEI. In a...

Who’s your favorite character on The Office? Maybe you’re partial to Michael’s hilarious antics or Jim’s wit. You might even love Dwight and his dedication to rules and authority. But I’m willing to bet that your favorite character is not Toby. Regardless of how you feel about Toby as a character, though, you have to admit that his job would not be for the faint of heart. And as ridiculous as the scenarios on this beloved sitcom seem, it appears that real life HR reps encounter shockingly similar situations. Human Resources employees have been sharing the most outrageous occurrences they’ve...

  I’m going to start this week with a story. It’s paraphrased a little, but you’ll see how it relates to persistence in a minute. One day the Buddha was walking through a village. A very angry and rude young man came up and began insulting him, saying all kinds of cruel words. The Buddha was not upset by these insults. Instead, he asked the young man, “Tell me, if you buy a gift for somebody, and that person doesn’t take it, to whom does the gift belong?” The young man was surprised to be asked by such a strange...