Cool Writing Tips began as a month's worth of daily blog posts about writing. Gradually the Tips expanded into slightly longer, philosophical looks at baseball + writing, rivers + writing, nature + writing, and life + writing. As one reader who received them as emails wrote, "They're not just writing tips. They're also what you'd call guidelines for living." Agreed, and they're "guidelines" in the best, pirate sense of the word.

Rebecca Lawton is a former fluvial geologist and Grand Canyon river guide who lives and writes in the American West. Her literary honors include a Fulbright Visiting Research Chair, Nautilus Book Award, Ellen Meloy Fund Award for Desert Writers, Waterston Desert Writing Prize, WILLA for original softcover fiction, three Pushcart Prize nominations, and residencies at Hedgebrook, The Island Institute, and PLAYA.

She is a fellow of the International League of Conservation Writers, a member of the Author's Guild, and Alumna of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
She has written eight books and numerous articles about water, rivers, climate, and nature for Aeon, Audubon, Brevity, Hakai, Hunger Mountain, More, Orion, the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, Sierra, Undark, and other fine journals.
"Honest in her assessment of the psychological costs of a gypsy life, artful in her understanding of currents and seasons, Lawton depicts the rivers taking away as well as giving . . . " ? David James Duncan, author, The River Why and My Story as Told by Water
Rebecca Lawton's work " . . . is both mirror and map, a reminder that a life can take the shape of the river itself--fierce and tender, restless and serene, asking us only for our unwavering fidelity to living, moving water." ? Ellen Meloy, author, Eating Stone and The Anthropology of Turquoise
"Rebecca Lawton doesn't just read water, she understands it, speaks it, lives it, and loves it . . . [she] examines everything from the loss of her mother to marriage, friendship, and work through a shimmering, water lens that reveals remarkable depth." ?Pamela Michael, cofounder of River of Words and The Gift of Rivers. Photograph copyright 2021 Rebecca Lawton