Whether it’s historically, spiritually or metaphysically, November 11 carries much meaning for many people. It carries a particularly personal significance for me: That was the date of my bar mitzvah. Yet that my bar mitzvah occurred on 11/11 wouldn’t be the only measure of the day’s import, as I relate in this excerpt from my memoir.

I’m often asked whether I have one piece of advice for writers. I don’t…because I have 10! These 10 tips have helped me write more than a dozen books (award-winning fiction and nonfiction), not to mention three optioned screenplays and countless articles and essays. They can help you too, whether you’re a seasoned writer or working on your first project and whatever your form, medium or genre.

When a powerful intuitive impulse prompted me to cross into the US from my native Canada on July 9, 1997, I couldn't know that not only would I not be going back, but that 21 years later I would be on my way to becoming a US citizen; a dual Canadian/US citizen, to be precise. Today, on the 21st anniversary of my "accidental immigration," I recount how I got here all those years ago, in a story excerpted from Acts of Surrender: A Writer's Memoir.

On this Independence Day, as every day, it's important to remember that true greatness, whether it be in an individual or in a nation, always comes from the heart.

There’s a difference between “wanting to know,” which derives from a healthy spirit of inquiry, and “needing to know,” which too often generates more anxiety than it eases.