I'm on the other side of the world doing school visits at the Western Academy of Beijing and still not completely on the right time zone. In order to clear my head and try to get the lead out of my legs, I went for an urban run this afternoon. At ...

At the Portland, Oregon airport (PDX) waiting for a flight to San Francisco, then on to Beijing, China. Long day ahead -- 17 hours of flight time, 15 time zones -- but I'm excited. Hopefully not too excited to get a bit of sleep on the way. I'll n...

After five weeks of being home (well, mostly home, there were those trips to the mountains to play in the snow), and lots of writing from my seat in the pilot's flight deck (seen here), I'm headed to Nebraska and Missouri to talk with kids about t...

I've always been a morning writer, mostly out of necessity. Get it done early before life intrudes and the creative side of my brain is overrun by minutia. A couple of months ago, though, circumstances conspired to force me into a few days of afte...

I've just learned that a world-famous climber (not to be named, in honor of a request for privacy) recently used my book, Storm Mountain, as a read-aloud to practice English for an upcoming speaking tour. I find this both exciting and unnerving. A...

According to Franz Kafka, "A book should serve as an ax for the frozen sea within us." That's a high literary bar to shoot for, but why not at least try to change the world while telling a good story?