Welcome to Pairings

All it took in 1885 to build Houston a city library was a book club, begun by women with a desire for "intellectual culture."

There's a Magic to Celebrating Milestones...and It Begins With Champagne (and Books About It)

Quitter's Day has come and gone, and with it, 80% of our 2025 New Year Resolutions. It's not too late for this smoother means to success.

When Mark Twain advised to write tight, he surely hadn't been enchanted by the Buzz Words of 2014. Read on for my Fable of Our Times.

How does inspiration strike? For these authors, it's the random events in everyday life that sparked ideas for their novels.

When you’re researching historical fiction, it would be so much easier to rev up the Time Machine. Here's how I did without time travel.

Henry Miller's own Eleven Commandments of Writing helped him maintain his focus on work in progress. Can they help with yours, too?

Here's how four words — Create First, React Later — can help to keep you on the writing track.

Crowded out by more robust tools, typewriters have vanished from our desks. But not our back yards.

Looking for some unique new traditions? Here are seven ways to celebrate Christmas Texas-Style, like they do in Austin, Texas.

Don’t fight it. Creativity is a choice. Once you make it, the ups, and the downs, are the fun part.

In 2006 I wrote this ode to my creative spirit, "Artist's Poem," and found renewed inspiration.

Hitting the road is part of my creative process. And I never pass by a historical marker without braking.

Inspiration strikes in strange and unexpected ways. But when it doesn’t strike, there are three tricks to juice it along.

When you let go, you create space for something else to move in to your life, as Holiday Mathis told me in my horoscope.

Embrace your dual gifts: you can inhabit two worlds, and you can slide between them with ease. It’s just what writers do.

In one short paragraph author Flannery O'Connor nails down her work ethic — one that will motivate your creative soul.

Inspiration comes from many places. No use pretending it all comes out of our heads with no other stimulation. We rely on influences.

To ignore a creative funk is to imperil your creative stamina. Here's out to take a time out to tend to your creative soul.

Inspiration shows up anywhere and everywhere. But motivation isn’t as reliable.