So after 15 years of retirement, I’m back in the classroom teaching Oral Presentation Through Comedy to 5th graders. It isn’t my goal to make comics of them. My goal is to get them comfortable speaking in front of their peers and taking away their fears. The butterflies disappear when they are trying to write and perform a joke. Most 5th graders think they are already funny, but they’re prisoners of the knock-knock jokes, yo mama jokes, and jokes out of Boy’s Life. To wri

I finally published my first novel and people have asked me, “Was the story about your life?” Not at all! Except for the protagonist being a schoolteacher, Grace was just a fictional character . . . at least at first. People have asked, “How did you get your idea for the plot?” In 1986, I read about a bus accident on the road to Reno. It rolled down the embankment and into a river. Nineteen people were killed and 22 injured. Divers looked for the bodies. The fact that th