Ready to boil your life down to, oh, six words? Talk about a writing challenge. Since 2006, Smith Magazine has been collecting "six word memoirs" from writers both famous and not-so-famous. Check out the latest entries here -- and submit your own micro-memoir!

I suppose my mother's reading to me as a child could be logged as my first introduction to fiction. In-between my childhood delight with fiction and my fiction writing career, two masters and a Ph.D. in history happened. It was after my Ph.D. in 1985 that I returned to fiction. I guess I had exhausted my curiosity about the "truth." Or, more accurately, I had exhausted my curiosity about formal historical study as a path to understanding "reality."

I'm often asked how I came to write Look Me in the Eye. This is the story. As my readers know, I've had an unusual life. It began with a crazy home environment, which I left behind at age sixteen when I joined a local band. Within a few years, I found myself on the road with the biggest tour of the decade -- KISS. Having reached the top of the world in music, I quit to work as an engineer in a toy company. But a few years later, I left that behind, too, when I quit electronics to repair cars in my driveway. And over the next decade I built that business into the largest independent Land Rover, Rolls Royce and Bentley specialty shop in New England. In the midst of that, I discovered photography, with my photos landing in galleries, museums, on record jackets and on billboards. And to top it all off, I began writing articles for car magazines.

Have you ever wondered why some people write easily and fluently, while others struggle and strain as if trying to squeeze a 185-lb body into a size six pair of jeans? In 30 years at this trade, I've noticed that effective writers tend to share seven traits. So, with apologies to Stephen Covey, here is my list.

These sites offer a smorgasbord (love that word) of writing tips, advice and inspiration. So grab your dinner plate and dig in!

Handbook of Rhetorical Devices

Creative Writing Prompts

Writing Time

40+ Tips to Improve Your Grammar and Punctuation

Tony Karrer, a computer professor and author of eLearning Technology, explains he how employs "scanning" to stay up to speed in his profession. Can his techniques help you, too? Read about Tony's approach here.