Writing Like the Wind

I’ve got what may be the best first chapter ever written for a coming-of-age novel, based loosely on the summer I turned nine. But that’s all I’ve got; with that particular manuscript, every time

Confessions of a Former Political Animal

I used to be a political animal. It started young; I was volunteering for Gene McCarthy’s 1968 presidential bid before I was twelve. And my first-ever mixed drink came at the Sioux Falls Coliseum in November 1972, while George McGovern was

Getting to 50

My sisters and I have this obsession: we have to visit all fifty states before we die. And the Rigneys are pretty particular about what constitutes a “visit.” You have to get out of the airport and buy something. It can be

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Categorized as Travel

Of Travel and Being Prepared

Between my day job and speaking at writing conferences, it’s the rare month that I’m not on the road somewhere. This time, it’s Texas, for the day job. Travel doesn’t hold the same wide-eyed appeal for me that it did when I was nineteen and headed for Minneapolis for the first time in my life.… Continue reading Of Travel and Being Prepared

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Categorized as Travel