I’ve been working with one of my clients, who shall remain nameless (Hi, Mitch!) to trim down his long middle grade fantasy. Clocking in at over 140,000 words it is, as I said, long. Meanwhile, I recently set out to write a short story. Apparently, I have a hard time writing anything short. The story […]
I’m ready. I’ve got two projects I want to finish, one knitted, one crocheted, on the needles, and I’ve warned my husband that we’ll be eating our dinners in front of the TV for the next couple weeks. Because: Olympics. Because: Winter Olympics. I love them. I love watching the Olympics, especially the Winter Olympics. […]
Let’s start off with a true confession—I stole that phrase about replenishing and renewing in the title from my friend Patty Bechtold, one of the wisest people I know. She had me as a guest on her podcast this week and that was our topic of discussion. Patty lives in Santa Rosa and I live […]
So, every year I choose a word to represent the year. Actually, most years I choose three words. And usually I write a blog post about my words in December. Well, December is long gone and I never wrote the blog post. And that’s because I felt uninspired about choosing a word–or words. Usually they […]
Here we are, two weeks into the new year. How are those resolutions going for you? Like, say, the one where you promised yourself you would improve your writing? Perhaps improve it so much that you’d nab yourself a publisher—or feel confident enough to publish your work yourself? Don’t despair if you feel you haven’t […]
I awoke one morning this week to an email with the headline Stop Feeling Sorry For Yourself. I don’t even know what the email was about—it is one of many (way too many) I get because I signed up for something somewhere along the line. The email stopped me for a minute. Because, right at […]
As you read this, I’ll be finishing up a five-day stay in Louisville, Kentucky, after a conference/celebration at Spalding University, where I got my MFA. The celebration part was to honor Sena Jeter Naslund, the founder and long-time director of the MFA program, who is retiring. Sena is the author of many wonderful novels, including […]
One day this week, I rose at 5 AM. I worked for an hour and a half—nailed the organization of a book project—and then drove to my son’s house for emergency babysitting duty at 6:30. By 9 AM that morning I’d knocked a big item off my to-do list, watched George, eaten breakfast and done […]
This morning when I got up at my usual early hour (made even earlier this week with the time switch), I had plans to work on the rewrite of my novel. Because that’s what I do when I get up early to write. It is my sacred time, devoted only to writing fiction. (Except for […]
Hi Writers, I babysat my 10-month-old grandson George one day this week, as I do most weeks, and as he gets older and more mobile I’m struck by one thing: his determination. He’ll attempt to climb on his rocking moose, for instance, but miss and plop on the floor. Up he scrabbles again. Then he […]
