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Creative writing is one of the more mysterious (and difficult) crafts for many to learn. The idea of sitting down, staring at a blank page and bringing it to life with words, arranged in such a way that draws the reader into an emotional journey — is incredibly daunting and the process of writing is […]
Read More The Puddle Club – behind the imagination of Michael McGrutherIf you’ve been reading this blog you know that The Puddle Club book is a fantasy tale about how golf and life are similar. It vividly shows young folks that the tools they first learn to use in golf are again used in life. Golf is a game and so is life. You cannot beat […]
Read More The story behind The Puddle Club – Part 7 – Play with a Purpose!One of the big ideas we present to readers in The Puddle Club is something called “Personal Par” Most folks understand what par means in golf — Par is the number of strokes (hits) it should take you to get your ball from the tee box into the hole. Each tee box has a marker […]
Read More The story behind The Puddle Club – Part 6 – PERSONAL PARToday I’m going to go over the underlying theme of The Puddle Club and briefly examine why the book is resonating so deeply with readers of all ages. How many times have you heard the expression “life is just a game”? I’m guessing quite a few, because it’s one of the truest of […]
Read More The story behind The Puddle Club – Part 5 – Game Of Life FirstWith Skyler (our Hero) and her sidekick Ralphie (the talking golf ball) clearly established, they both begin the journey through the mystical golf course known only as The Puddle Club. This journey will eventually lead them both back home but there is no guarantee they will ever make it. This is the risk of taking […]
Read More The story behind The Puddle Club – part 4 – PRACTICEOPOLISOnce I knew that the best way to achieve the goal of writing an educational and inspiring book about golf – particularly junior golf – was through fantasy and magical-realism, is when the book really began to take on a life of it’s own. The structure became apparent rather quickly. Junior golfers typically play nine […]
Read More The story behind The Puddle Club – Part 3Anytime I was at the clubhouse with my daughter, Gregg Russell and I began to talk about his dream of getting a helpful book for junior golfer’s into the world. He and his wife have run many of the US Kids Golf tournaments in the Philadelphia PGA section, and have years of […]
Read More The story behind The Puddle Club – Part 2My family relocated to the Philadelphia suburbs in the winter of 2015. My wife had landed her dream job and who was I, an out-of-work screenwriter, to hold her back? After living all of our adult lives in either the NYC or LA, it was with cautious optimism that we settled among the Amish […]
Read More The story behind The Puddle Club – Part 1The Puddle Club is a mystical country club that can only be entered by jumping into a puddle. A magic kind of puddle that invited you by name. There is only one way out of the Puddle Club and that is to play through. But don’t worry if you’ve never played the game of golf […]
Read More What is The Puddle Club?Children know exactly what to do when they encounter a puddle. The puddle invites them to come and disrupt it’s peaceful facade, to create water ripples with their fingers and to get a glimpse of one’s own wavy reflection. The puddle is a temporary doorway to another world. One that disappears just as quickly as […]
Read More Puddles Are Fun