We needed a downstairs bathroom in our old house, so my husband Barry is building it. He worked as a carpenter when he was a young man and has kept up his skills, but because it isn’t something he does all the time, there are many learning and re-learning curves. The other day while we […]
Lazy Summer Days?
For a while now, I’ve been feeling a little disappointed in myself for not getting more writing done this summer. Yes, there was a wedding in the middle of June which took me away for a week, but other than that, I’ve been home—even more than usual. And yes, I’ve needed to spend a lot […]
How I Became a ‘Highly Active’ Writer
Hey, we all know it. Writers sit too much. And the longer we sit, the more we read about how damaging sitting is. It’s enough to make us too depressed to exercise! But there’s no way around it, writing is sedentary work…or is it? No! Now we have: the Treadmill Desk! After coveting Sherry D. […]
VP-XVII & ME
Last year, an online acquaintance—Gary Henderson—from my Second Life writing group—The Quillians—got accepted to Viable Paradise Writer’s Workshop. I had never heard of it. I now know how “out of it” that makes me…but the point is that I finally did hear of it. I was impressed with what Gary had to say about it […]
Recipe for Revision
courtesy of liquene For the last week or so, I’ve been working on the novel I wrote in November during NaNoWriMo. Today I admitted to myself, that while effort has been expended [passive voice has been used], I’m flailing. I’ve been changing this, changing that, working obsessively on that all-important opening scene, but with very […]
Nuanc Book Designs – “Eye Contact”
In October, I opened a shop of book cover art—Nuanc Book Designs—on Etsy. “Eye Contact,” pictured on the left, is the latest offering. Designing the covers for The Speculative Elements Series from Third Person Press and its upcoming ghost story anthology, Grey Area, has been a pleasure for me. Because I’ve gotten a lot of […]
The Pitch
After posting about “the pitch” for my novel-in-progress earlier last month, I thought I should share what I came up with. Finally got this the way I wanted it around the end of the first week of NaNoWriMo. As for the book itself, I’m still not sure about my title, “Plasticity.” I like it and […]
Day 6 – 30 Nano Post-Mortem
The thing I’m most proud of after successfully finishing NaNoWriMo is that I made no foolish pledge to blog everyday during the month. The first five days I wanted to. It was a good feeling to complete my main course and then finish off with a little blogging dessert. But after day five, the novel […]
Day 5 – Showing Character
Today, my main character showed her character. Up to now, she’s been more self-involved and confused than anything else—for good reasons—but, that had to change. Even though she still has more questions than answers, she reached a point where she had to take a stand, to declare herself on one side of the conflict or […]
Day 4 – Getting to the Point
courtesy of |Chris| Today, I could not get to The Point. I planned on writing the MC’s Fateful Decision. That point at which she makes a decision that will forever change her life and set up the action for the rest of the book. Without this, I could ramble on about the situation she’s in […]
Day 3 – The Fun Part
Yesterday, my MC was walking home from her job, exhausted and worried, when she suddenly decided to climb a tree. They are huge trees with low, sturdy, spreading branches. Of course, she would want to throw her leg up and hoist herself into one of them! But it came as a surprise to me. It’s […]
Grey Area: 13 Ghost Stories
What is it about ghost stories? They have been around forever and are popular all over the world. My indie publishing house, Third Person Press, decided to put together a ghost story anthology because we get more ghost story submissions than any other kind, too many for our other anthologies where we like to have […]