Blog
Testing ChatGPT With Wells Waite Miller
When I teach writing classes or give a book presentation, people are increasingly asking me what I think about artificial intelligence (AI) in connection with writing. The reality is that I’m neither adamantly against its usage nor wildly enthusiastic about the possibilities. Some of my writing clients want me to completely avoid AI while others give me free reign—while still others prefer AI usage to be limited to generating title ideas and article outlines. My personal preferences resonate with the middle ground. AI does a fantastic job of recommending titles and a reasonable one of creating outlines. The caveat for
Lorain County Family Recipes: History and Traditions from Pierogis to Plum Dumplings (History Press)
For Immediate Release Lorain County Family Recipes: History and Traditions from Pierogis to Plum Dumplings (History Press) Twenty-five recipes brought to Lorain County from around the world (Lorain, Ohio April 2025)—Lorain County attracted people from all around the globe in search of a better life, and these intrepid immigrants brought their culinary traditions and know-how with them. This book shares stories of how people from dozens of ethnicities made their way here, particularly (but certainly not exclusively) to Lorain for steel mill jobs, and records their melting pot memories and mouthwatering recipes. “Regardless of when and from where a family
Calling of the Celts
Let’s name her Fern, my father said but Mother cried, oh, no! She’d dreamt of grass so lush and green, that name they must let go With roots dug deep in Irish soil, I’d need a Gaelic name And since my blood ran shamrock green, Kelly I became Late at night, when slumber falls, I dream of misty isles Of saint-chased snakes and emerald dust, fairies on fence stiles. When my dreams run especially deep, I see sage ferns of lace Ancient lace, silvery ferns, swamps o’er all the place Live with us, swamp with us, flourish in our
Nurturing a Poem
I plant a thought in water and cover it with dirt I dream another ending and prune the planted thought I play a game of hide-n-seek I go to bed too late I wash a load of dirty stuff so my towels don’t stink My poem, it hasn’t grown yet I sing a song to help I think it needs more oxygen or maybe moonlight helps I think I need more oxygen my dog is out of food I plant a thought in firewood and cover it with glue A hurricane is coming Wait, that makes no sense I
Abraham Brian Farm: High Water-Mark Irony
In 1857, a free Black man named Abraham Brian—alternatively spelled as “Brien” in the 1850 census and “Bryan” in the 1860 census but “Brian” on his gravestone—bought twelve acres of property along Cemetery Ridge in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Brian couldn’t have possibly conceived the events that would transpire on his land just six years later and how they captured so much of the upheaval of the times. In fact, some of the biggest ironies of the war took place on his land (more about those in a bit!). Abraham Brian’s Family Born in Maryland in either 1804 or 1807—perhaps to enslaved
Pickett’s Charge: Treating the Wounded
By the time the smoke cleared and combatants left the field after Longstreet’s Assault on July 3, 1863—popularly known as Pickett’s Charge—the carnage was horrific. All told during three bloody days in July, the Union Army saw an estimated 23,049 casualties: 3,155 killed, 14,529 wounded, and 5,365 missing/captured. According to the American Battlefield Trust, 1,500 Union soldiers were wounded or killed during the assault alone—and among them was twenty-one-year-old Captain Wells Waite Miller. Despite the severity of his wounds, unlike many of his comrades in battle, Wells survived. While there’s no way to definitively know why he did when so