On My Mind

Book Review: Pity the Reader, On Writing with Style

“Write like a human” has been my advice to university students for years; imagine my delight to see those same words from Kurt Vonnegut to his pupils in Pity the Reader: On Writing with Style. For any writer, novice or not, advice on the…
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Do I hafta outline? Should I outline?

We learn to outline our writing in about the fifth grade. I loved the mechanics of it. How symmetrical the page looked with the alphabet and Roman numerals lined up in the left margin! Have I used that skill as a writer? Not really. So –…
Book cover with titleLisa Graham-Peterson

Book Review, Horses Adored and Men Endured – A memoir of falling and getting back up

If you were at all wondering what you’d find between the covers of this book, look no further than the title. There are no secret themes, but there are plenty of characters – human and equine – expertly chronicled in this life journey…
stack of banned booksLisa Graham-Peterson

Exercise Your Freedom to Read (a banned book)

No books were banned from my childhood home, that I recall. I did sneak a book about the infamous Bonnie and Clyde to my bedroom, but only because my mother wouldn’t let me see the movie. No, we were a very bookish household and my mother…
empty classroomLisa Graham-Peterson

Back to school … for what, exactly?

There are plenty of back-to-school-looks-different-in-2020 posts. I’m not writing that. My thoughts here are the same with the start of every new semester. Not just in September. Not just when the classroom is a computer screen and the teacher…
cover of bookLisa Graham-Peterson

Book Review: Mustang – From Wild Horse to Riding Horse by Vivian Gabor

For many equine enthusiasts, the iconic image of the US West isn’t a chap in chaps on a dusty town road. It’s a herd of wild mustangs kicking up dust as they fill the horizon with magic. Nothing stops them. Nothing separates them. The plight…
NASA Earth observatory image of Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans

Crisis communication lessons from Katrina … the hurricane, not the girl

I know two Katrinas. One got a passing mention earlier this week, the 15-year anniversary of history-making Hurricane Katrina. She was a devastating Category 5 storm that left the Gulf states of the US, particularly New Orleans and its greater…
Book coverLisa Graham-Peterson 2020

Book Review: The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse by Charlie Mackesy

Children have very big questions – about the universe, about feelings, about things seen and unseen. Grown-ups answer with facts, seizing every chance for a “teaching moment” but not realizing they’re really not answering at all. Children…
Book cover with horse eyes and titleLisa Graham-Peterson

Carlos and Communication 101: Know Your Audience

As a career writer and editor, I’m hard pressed to do much of anything without that lens on life. Now and again, I publish book reviews for Arabian Horse Travel. A recent book smacked of communication fundamentals disguised as horse training,…
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Avoid Pressers That Suck With These 4 Questions

No one likes press conferences. No one. Reporters prefer to complete their assignments any other way than answering a cattle call to get exactly the same info that everyone else gets. The people at the lectern would rather be doing anything…
Page from the dictionaryLisa Graham-Peterson

Will we ever want something to ‘go viral’ again?

I pride myself on knowing words. And how to use them. That’s what people pay me for ‘lo these many years. There are more than a million words in the English language today, but less than 200,000 in regular use. And every day, new words…
Looking up at a spiral staircaseLisa Graham-Peterson

(Not the) Stairway to Heaven

I snapped this image of the staircase in Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art then swung around to face a very bold, tersely worded sign banning cameras of any kind inside the museum. I paused long enough to note I wasn’t in danger of a…
Words in bell say Ring For ServiceLisa Graham-Peterson

Shout results, not status

Open for business!  I caution my university students about the needless use of the exclamation point, but I’ve set it here quite purposefully. Entrepreneurs and existing businessowners alike are enthusiastic about grand openings and…

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