Writers are made, not born.  The talent itself may be innate, but it must be conditioned and developed, and developed in such a way to maximize the writer’s potential. At Taos Toolbox, we don’t tell you what to write, we help you make what you write better. If you want to write better, you need […]

I was surprised that Saving Mr. Banks received only one Oscar nomination (for Original Music), since it’s such a well-written, well-acted film with a powerhouse cast of past and future Oscar contenders: Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Paul Giamatti, Colin Farrell, Bradley Whitford, Jason Schwartzman.   Thompson is terrific, and Hanks is very good, even if he’s somewhat […]

It’s award nomination season, so I notice other writers’ blogs are listing all their works published in 2013 just in case their readers want to nominate them. I’d like to follow suit, but the sad fact is, though I’ve been working right along, nothing of mine was published in 2013, all due to the vagaries […]

“This stance is called ‘Fist Under Elbow.’” “‘Fist Under Elbow?’  That’s it?” “Yes.” “It’s not ‘Monkey Fist Shelters Beneath the Wing of the Phoenix?’” “No.” “It’s not ‘White Crane Feigns a Broken Pinion?’” “No.” “It’s not ‘Monkey Reaches Beneath the Bough for the Peaches of Heaven?” “No.  It’s just ‘Fist Under Elbow.’” “Well, it can’t […]