I’m journaling every day because of the pandemic. I want to leave a legacy for future historians. Even if my notebooks are never cataloged, researched, or cited, I feel that I am contributing. Perhaps it is time to evaluate all of our work not by what it brings us but by what it contributes to …
Don’t Judge Your Story By Its Sales by Lani Longshore Read More »
When the shelter-in-place order came out, I decided to journal every day. I thought I would be doing my part to help future historians. What I discovered was that I was learning a valuable lesson in character development. While reading through the journal, I noticed that although I miss my friends, I’m not suffering from …
COVID-19 and Character Development by Lani Longshore Read More »
My husband just received another box from one of his brothers containing papers from their late grandfather. JFK Brown was a mining engineer who worked with the Canadian government in World War I and the US government in World War II cataloging resources that could be used for the war effort. The box we received …
The Treasures You Are Creating by Lani Longshore Read More »
John Bluck has published a new mystery, Death in the Holler. The ebook is available now at Smashwords.com, while the print version will be available June 15. In addition, TVW members are invited to read a free ebook version at https://dl.bookfunnel.com/. Stacey Gustafson has two stories published in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Laughter …
The shelter-in-place order for California may not give you extra writing time. You may be so busy finding work-arounds for your normal duties that you don’t have energy for your stories. As a writer, however, this is what you’ve trained for. Flex those writing muscles and create a file for future work by watching life …
This Is What We’ve Trained For by Lani Longshore Read More »
Connie Hanstedt’s poem “Layers” has been named a finalist in the Tucson Festival of Books Literary Awards. Connie was invited to the Master Class in March 2020. Ed Miracle’s debut novel, Maker Messiah, won the Best Science Fiction Award for 2019 from IndiesToday. His essay “Submarine Dreams” won first place in the San …
Returning member V. Z Byram’s debut novel, Song of Latvia, was published on December 13, 2019. You can find it here. Four of Julaina Kleist-Corwin’s 200-word personal stories are published in Donna Kozik’s 20/20 Vision. Each story is in different parts of the book: Intro: “Teaching Cows”; Past: “What Do You Want to Be?; …
On Friday, February 14, 2020, Tri-Valley Writers members Jordan Bernal and Paula Chinick presented their well-respected session “Practice Your Pitch: Cast Off Your Jitters” to a full house at the San Francisco Writers Conference (SFWC). The sessions were designed to assist attendees in casting off their jitters in a safe environment before the speed dating session with …
Whether you are blazing away on your writing New Year’s Resolutions or still churning out excuses why you aren’t, one thing that I’ve found useful is to have a list of writing prompts handy. If I’m stuck, a writing prompt can help loosen the word jam. If I’m falling out of love with my project, …
A Few Prompts for the New Year by Lani Longshore Read More »
I was talking with other writers about story ideas, and we decided that we all needed to relearn how to be as imaginative as children. Young brains can combine random elements into any story, and by golly most of the time it works. That creativity gets beaten out of us because as adults we have …
