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Articles by Dale E. Lehman
Fact Checking is Your Job
Member-only story Dale E. Lehman · Follow Published in An Idea (by Ingenious Piece) · 4 min read · -- It always was. Always. Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash You can tell how much attention I pay to news these days. When a few of my Facebook contacts grumbled about Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement that Meta was ending its fact-checking programs, I had no clue what they were talking about. I had to research the subject. That is, I had to fact-check my contacts’ claims.
Opinion: Understanding the costs and benefits of tariffs in Alaska
Google searches for the term “tariff” spiked after the 2024 presidential election. The president has made the conversation about tariffs inevitable. His message is clear: rely less on other countries for what we need. Why should we care about it? The structural changes needed to redirect our economic activities to become self-sufficient will take time and this self-sufficiency will come at a cost. What does it all mean for Alaska?
A Fishy Sight
A BERNARD AND MELODY STORY Bernard hated distractions. Distractions made for sloppy work, and sloppy work led to prison. But his wife Melody couldn't help be distracting. That beautiful auburn hair, that beautiful smile, that beautiful, well, everything, not to mention that air of supreme confidence that broadcast the most astonishing thing about her: the Almighty was squarely in her corner. If you didn't know she was a thief - very few did - you'd swear she was a filthy rich philanthropic heiress.
Must Headlines Deceive?
A February 23, 2024, article in Diverse headlined “Growing Number of College Grads Earn Less Than the Typical High School Graduate” was based on a report from the HEA Group – a headline mirrored in other national media (including CBS MoneyWatch, Forbes, and the New York Times).
Chicory
When the chicory blooms, you're there.
Seth
A final moment of happiness The sun didn't show that morning. An unbroken stream of gray filled the western Ohio sky, carried on a chill breeze. The air felt heavy, wet. James Linderman didn't care for it. Deer would be scarce this morning, more so if the rains came. Cloaked in a stand of young beech gone rusty in autumn's embrace, he set the butt of his long rifle on the ground and leaned the barrel against a tree trunk, then he...
Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers
At the start of this stellar mystery from Sutanto (Dial A for Aunties), 60-year-old, strong-willed widow Vera Wong discovers a body with a flash drive in its hand in her tea shop in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Vera contacts the police, but confident she can do a better job at pinpointing the murderer, she snatches the flash drive before their arrival. The authorities identify the victim as 29-year-old Marshall Chen and determine he died from an allergy attack.
Miraculous Morgan
Miraculous Morgan Everyone needs a boost now and again Photo by Max on Unsplash I’d grown accustomed to dying. We all do if we live long enough. My latest death, the third in ten months, came over dinner at a chain restaurant with Angela and took the form of, “I’m sorry, I can’t watch you do this to yourself, I’ve met someone else, I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m so, so sorry…”
Typesetting for the Self-Published
Make your print look as professional as your writing As a self-published author, you already know — or should — the importance of good writing, solid editing, and a great cover. You’ve done everything you can to make your book look and read like a professional product. Or have you? Did you pay attention to typography? Do you know the rules of typography? Do you even know what typography is? Based on books I’ve seen, a great many self-published authors don’t, or maybe they just don’t care.
The Right Way to Read Your Reviews
How to use reader reactions to improve your writing Whether to read your reviews is a vexing question. Many writers and publishers insist you shouldn’t, and they have a point. That volatile cocktail of glowing praise, lukewarm approval, and open hostility can make you sick with anxiety. Then again, hidden in the mix just might be some nutritive value after all. These are your readers, your audience, the people for whom you’re performing.
Experience + Editor = Good Writing
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash I’m lucky. I have a built-in editor. I found her at college way back in 1976, gave her term papers and short stories and eventually novels to edit, and convinced her to stay married to me all these years. We even ran a small press together, publishing some thirty-five books, mostly by others.
Delete Your Expletives
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash Although it entered the language in the 1930’s, the phrase “expletive deleted” was most famously used during the Watergate scandal investigation, when censored transcripts of White House recordings were made public. We commonly understand an expletive to be an obscenity, no doubt thanks to those transcripts. But it has a broader meaning, one that bears on good writing. The word expletive derives from the Latin explere (“to fill”).
Relatives of Chicago police victims release statement and video opposing Ex-Mayor Rahm Emanuel for U.S. Ambassador to Japan
Victims and relatives of victims of police brutality in Chicago while Rahm Emanuel was mayor released a joint statement Thursday, June10, 2021 decrying President Biden’s reported plan to nominate Emanuel to be the U.S. ambassador to Japan. “During his eight years in office, Emanuel displayed contempt for communities of color,” the statement said.
Goldenrod Is Here
Dreaming or wakeful, she’s magic Photo by Danny Trujillo on Unsplash Mark remembered two things about that night, one being the fog creeping up the slope from the distant riverbank, slinking like a gray cat among the trees, slithering down the narrow streets, creeping around houses with their curtain eyelids drawn in slumber. The other was his cell phone, guzzling electrons on the faux Jacobean nightstand while warbling the quiet tune that meant Stacey was calling.
What’s My Superpower? Editing
WRITING TIPS A list of Editing Tricks with a Fun Keyboard Shortcut After a delightful conversation with Phoenix Huber and Randye S Spina, I realized I had a superpower I never knew of! Editing. Often I tell my friends that there is actually no such thing as good writing, only good editing. While I’m sure someone else has also said that, I still stand by it even if I’m not the first to come up with the idea.
Faulkner Said “Kill All Your Darlings,” But Here’s a Less Murderous Way to Edit Your Writing
Hint: it requires some whittling Photo by Raul Barrios on Unsplash You’re a writer. You’ve done some serious time, keeping your nose to the proverbial grindstone, researching, assessing, assaulting blank pages with words. You’ve stepped back and looked at the hot mess of your first draft, hacked it to pieces, and glued it back together. But still, every time you reread it, you face-palm because you almost sent it out when it still needed more edits.
Racism Exists At St. Louis Public Radio. Acknowledge it.
As people all over the world rise up to reaffirm the value of Black lives, journalists are turning the lens on news organizations across the country that have almost entirely white newsrooms, leadership teams, and boards. St. Louis Public Radio is one of many public media organizations that are stained by this legacy of structural racism. Our station’s leaders need to take responsibility for their role in cultivating a culture that perpetuates racism.
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