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“In a car you’re always in a compartment, and because you’re used to it you don’t realize that through that car window everything you see is just more TV. You’re a passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame. On a cycle the frame is gone. You’re completely in contact with […]

It was one of those movies where they hate each other at first, but then raw revulsion turns into passion.  I’m a sucker for those kinds of movies. But even more for the fuzzy, little dogs that help bring the couple together.  I turned to Richard in the darkened theater and whispered, “Awe.”  He looked stern, then frightened.  He’s […]

“I’ll tell you about it because I am here and you are distant.” “I fished upstream coming ever closer and closer to the narrow staircase of the canyon. Then I went up into it as if I were entering a department store. I caught three trout in the lost and found department.” “I believe I […]

“It is very strange, this domination of our intellect by our digestive organs. We cannot work, we cannot think, unless our stomach wills so. It dictates to us our emotions, our passions. After eggs and bacon it says, ‘Work!’ After beefsteak and porter, it says, ‘Sleep!’ After a cup of tea (two spoonfuls for each […]

Hey, Anthony Great questions — from a Hemingway-esque Six Word (or in your case, four word) Story. Ol’ Earnesto’s example was: For sale: baby shoes, never worn.And that inspired a whole slew of imitators and, indeed, an entire book. I’ve previously written a blog post on how this applies to advertising. A few of my faves […]

Fred, as a dog, sucked. Let me rephrase; Fred, as a dog, bit.  He attacked, screamed and ripped his teeth through little girls, telephone pole repairmen, my sister’s maid of honor, and my face, twice. I had to have stitches as a three year old. It’s why I’m so pretty. As a seven year old I […]

Johnny was sitting on the floor at the foot of his bed, wrapped up in his yellow, blue, white, and black afghan blanket that his mother had made. “Come out’n play, Johnny!” Blurted Tommy through the open window outside Johnny’s room. “I told ya, I’m grounded!” Replied Johnny. “Oh, come on Johnny! It’s nice out […]

Indy, You asked about a short story less than 300 words. I created this one 2+ decades ago for a laugh among friends. It’s four words with no personal transformation in the narrative. However there is something that might be interesting to consider. Here’s my story: Punch.Bleed.Sue.Caymans. On the surface this is just nonsense. The reality […]

I got a Dad when I was seven.  Charles Scudamore was studying to become a doctor, and lucky for me, he fell in love with my mother.  “I do.”“I do.”“And I’m with her. It’s sort of a package deal. Hi, my name is Brian.” Then WHOOSH, Charles Scudamore whisked Mom and me from our home […]

We’ve watched enough TV. It’s time to read some books. One of my heroes, John Steinbeck, twice followed in the footsteps of another of my heroes, Robert Louis Stevenson.  Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes is a travelogue written by RLS in 1878.  The Sea of Cortez is the travelogue of Steinbeck about an ocean journey […]

Partners, Like you, I’ve heard from nearly every one of my clients during the past few days. This was complicated by the fact that I was meeting with a series of clients in Vancouver during that time. In fact, I write this to you from the Vancouver airport, Gate E-86.  🙂 My private opinion is […]

There’s a gun in the dash of her 1968 Mustang. She drove 43 miles to this perfect place where she’s going to turn off the lights. She played among these rocks as a child. Life was easy. And perfect. Her feet remembered the sand as it oozes through its toes. Things were easier back then. […]

            Some people never seem to have a bad day in their life.              The worst day Tallis could ever remember was the time he accidentally sat in chocolate and walked around with a stain on his pants all day. His life was plain. Opportunity for excitement never seemed to walk into his life, so he had […]

Georgette found us at a busy gas station in an even busier strip center.  She was a cotton ball with four legs and no collar.  She vagabonded up to our car as if she wanted to hop a ride.  My wife quickly scooped her up so she wouldn’t get run over.  There were a lot […]

Thumb up, pointer finger extended, “Bang!” It was his best trick, playing drop-dead Ted. I thought my wife was going to kill him the first night in the apartment. Cordoned off in the kitchen, he started to howl. The hot water bottle trick didn’t work. The ticking clock didn’t work. The stuffed Pooh bear got […]

“Rinny Did It” Rinny was a hunting dog.  Not purebred but better for it, though he was pointedly proud of a small helping of blue tick. Norman could shoot, nothing like Irene’s brothers and she had several.  He brought home a few ducks with Rinny’s help.  Squirrels were too easy, but provided an occasional spark of sport for […]

Chris Cuts the Cake I ran across this photo of Chris Maddock and me. It was taken 17 years ago. Chris has been helping Wizard Academy students become better writers for the past 19 years. One of the secrets of his success is, “Show. Don’t tell.” Zig Ziglar stood at a whiteboard smiling at me […]

Tim Miles with his wife, Dee, at the Wizard of Ads partner meeting in San Antonio along with Jennifer Compton (in white) and her daughter.

Back row: Gary Bernier, Steve Rae, J.D. Campbell, Kris Hoots and Steve Thomas. Front row: Sharon Bernier, Matthew Burns and Sandra Burns.

Take a look at the Wizard (bi)Weekly.

This is Micah. Micah was a shelter dog.  A German Shepherd/Sheltie mix. Smaller than a shepherd with the long hair, speed and herding mentality of a Sheltie. Loved people. Indifferent to other dogs. From day one, always stayed in our yard. Instinctively knew where the borders were.  Let him out, he would roam the perimeter, do […]

(The new blog of the partners is full of amazing stuff. I’ll give you a link to it when we get a little deeper in the rabbit hole. – Indy)

True Adventure A contrast of opposites is the foundation of effective communication. A thing cannot exist without its opposite. But opposites aren’t always easy to detect. As an example, the opposite of “freedom” isn’t really “slavery,” because slavery no longer exists in our society like it did 160 years ago. We need to contrast freedom […]

Hugh, The wizard was pecking away at his keyboard when I walked in with your email. I believe he heard me come into the room but he didn’t look up because the wizard has to look at the keys when he types. When I read him your subject line, “I’ve been thinking… dangerous pastime, don’t […]

Mike should not have been my dog. Sue and I had six dogs on our farm in Africa. My two large ones, her two medium-sized and an ankle snapper each.  Named after my father’s favourite dog – an English Bull Terrier – I had always liked big dogs. Having our older dogs put down and finding […]

Hey Roy!  Hope to see you tomorrow night, but just in case I miss you, I can’t help but share this with you. Also: this is just 100% me feeling proud of being good at something, and you’re one of the few people I can honestly share stuff like this with. Maybe I’m trying to […]

It started with the purchase of a $5 watch at Wal-Mart yesterday.  My 9-year-old daughter, Darby, wanted a watch like mine, so she bought one.  Little did we know that the alarm on the watch is set for 4:00 a.m.   When the alarm sounded, it woke both Darby and her 10-year-old sister, Alex.  Darby […]

My Guardian Angel by Norma Beech Divot is my guardian angel. Five years ago, and for a few years before that, my husband and I were Divot’s next door neighbors.  We could always count on Divot meeting us at the fence in the morning to see us off to work, and she was guaranteed to be in […]

Dear Ralph, My name is David and I want to share a curious story with you. I was recently taking a walk with my friend Dana along the Albany New York bike path. It runs along the Hudson River and is quite rural. Grass, trees, birds, etc. There is really nothing created by man short […]

We Saved Each Other The first attack came out of nowhere.  My prized hunting dog lashed out at my daughter and struck her between the eyes with his front canines.  Chaos erupted.  With blood streaming down her face, I rushed the dog out of the room and down into his kennel.  Off to the emergency room.  Michelle would recover with […]

Bruno I wish this story had a happy ending. Bruno joined our family in 2012. He was one of the many changes that we made that year to help our daughter battle the breast cancer diagnosis that she received at just 28 years old. She asked for a puppy. If she had asked for 1,000 […]

Diary Of A Fish By Gabe and Dave Weiss For our fish Day 1:  I’m just a lost soul, swimming in a fishbowl.  “Hey, what’s up Al?”  “Just swimmin’ the dream, Eddie. How about you?”  “Not much, out for a quick lap around the old dome, ya know?” “Sure do. Enjoy it and I’ll see […]

Adopting Milo Can we keep him?  My eleven-year-old daughter Maddi was holding a tiny Malshi aka, Shih Tzu-Maltese mix.  I still don’t know what was cuter, the puppy or Maddi’s eyes of excited hope.  Both of my kids eagerly informed me that he was free, and the owners had already paid for all his shots […]

The Fateful Pardon… At fish camp, in Wa-Wa Canada, the bunks were sheltered from the rain but not from the rodents.  The morning routine was to live trap mice and then have “Swim for your Life!” competitions. Each morning 15 men had their mice and would meet at the dock.  The morning lake was smooth like glass […]

Dog(s) of the Year(s)  If my wife, Susan, had been an exotic dancer, she would have fan-danced to David Rose’s 1962 classic, The Stripper, as “Shorty Keystone”. Because according to Sooz, stripper nicknames are best derived by combining that of your first dog with the street where you lived. Ergo, had I headlined for the […]

Will, I, too, like Seneca. Eight of his quotes appear in the Random Quotes database at MondayMorningMemo.com, along with four quotes from Marcus Aurelius. Seneca was one of the later Stoics and Marcus Aurelius was the final one. I prefer these two, I think, because their perspectives are more refined than the earlier Stoics who […]

Murphy was a neighbor we grew up with and my oldest brother’s best friend. He was the youngest of three brothers. As a young child he had a serious heart condition and had several surgeries. One surgery resulted in him losing sections of his small intestine. The net result was he had the worst smelling […]

The More Connected We Are the Less Connected We Become – a 600-word essay on human behaviour at a theme park: Excuse me, sorry, just trying to get through, oops – sorry… These were the first words I mumbled at the start of a recent family vacation at Universal Studios Orlando. Being Canadian, and raised […]