Even with good maps and detailed directions, I get lost. My husband gave me a GPS for Christmas, which has cut down the number of times I miss turns because I can’t read the street signs. As much as I value my map-reading skills, having Miss MapVoice tell me “turn left now” has proven more …
They say bringing reading material to the hospital helps to fill the days, but I didn’t want to read after my recent spinal surgery. I wanted to write about nurses who administered medications at regular intervals, even waking me during the night to take my sleeping pill. My struggle to untangle my hospital gown from …
Random Thoughts While on Drugs , by Annette Langer Read More »
Here’s a philosophical question of unknown attribution: if you write a book and no one reads it, is it really a book? Yes! we shout. We write out of passion; we write because we have to; we write for ourselves. Not me. I don’t have to write, and I have other passions, all of which …
One of the advantages of having an unusual name is that you pay attention when you hear it. Or read it, as happened when I ran across the term longshore drift. The phrase has something to do with the accumulation of sand along a beach. The proper definition matters less to me than the juxtaposition …
You know you write echoes. Within your prose lurk certain words, unconsciously written, that grate on readers because they needlessly repeat. Unless you’re writing about the Strategic Air Command, these three words should not appear more than a few times throughout your article, novel or short story. But how do you spot the repetitions your …
I studied Latin, but I hated its arbitrary word order. Blah, blah, blah. Shut up and listen to me. It is graduation time January 1941. Ceremonies take place in Carnegie Hall. One thinks of the musician’s joke, “How do you get to play Carnegie Hall. Practice, practice, practice.” For us the practice was four years …
I started a book review group, along with writers Julie Royce, Vee Byram, and Sharon Svitak, with a different twist. All of us are in critique groups sponsored by the California Writers Club Tri-Valley Branch. All of us strive to improve our skills not only as writers, but as critiquers as well. That quest became …
OMG! Oh my God is not one of my favorite phrases. Can I change my vocabulary now that Oxford English Dictionary has declared these three letters to be spoken as a word? Probably not. God is a divine word for me, not a text or abbreviated phrase that scampers between an exclamation for spilled milk to a lost lottery …
At the request of my many fans, who do not want to be identified, and more importantly because the President of our organization has suggested all members submit “A BLOG”, I have decided to take the plunge. I have never written “A BLOG”, because frankly I think it sounds funny. Maybe it should be called …
Not all publisher rejection letters are bad. Surely, some make you feel discouraged, frustrated, or downright angry. But others can cause you to smile. The one I received today (reproduced below) even made me say, “Awww.” Today is the deadline on the second extension for submissions to our Mother’s Day anthology. Unfortunately, we didn’t receive …
