I was sitting at my desk the other day with a characteristically blank look on my face. Anne walked by and asked, “What are you doing?” I said, “Nothing.” “You’re actually doing absolutely nothing?” she asked. “Is that even possible?” “Well, since you seem to be rather insistent about it, I’m drifting,” I said. “Drifting?” […]

When I visit schools to share my children’s books, the students always ask, “How do you know anyone will like them?” I say, “I don’t. But if I don’t write and publish them, I’ll never know.” When I write fiction for adults, the adults who read it always ask, “How do you know anyone will […]

In 1999, I was working at a small public-relations firm in Avon, Connecticut. My dentist was in the next town east, which, oddly enough, is West Hartford. (Everything is relative.) Exiting I-84 on Prospect Street, I drove north on Prospect, intending to turn left onto Farmington Avenue, the street on which my dentist’s office was […]

Author’s Note: This story is an elaboration on a comment I posted in a thread initiated by my friend, Tammy Eldredge. It’s also a faithful recounting of an actual event and a very valuable lesson. In 1974, I was playing in a band with some guys who rented a house on West Street in Rocky […]

As readers of my ravings likely know by now, my father was a U.S. Marine. To him — and, so, to us — time was an adversarial construct. There was no later. There was no gradually. There was no patience. There were just two things: (1) Now. (2) Now, God damn it! Growing up in […]

Shara Lewis-Campbell is the co-founder of Beauty & the Beast Publishing, a book publishing and media company. In the spirit of Nadine Gordimer, Shara believes all writers have a social responsibility in all arenas.  Shara’s speciality involves publishing aspiring writers atypically from the industry, providing them with a voice and opportunity as social beings, creatively […]