I’m declaring this Critique Group Appreciation Week. My gratitude for the six women in my group, who have patiently commented on my novel for over a year, has exceeded the bounds of one or two thank-you emails. Only in the company of other dedicated writers, do I feel comfortable enough to display my “baby.” The …
Some writers friends and I talked about family stories, how we loved preserving the history, but how we had to fudge the facts so various family members wouldn’t send a hit man after us. It is true that no man is the villain in his own story, nor any woman. It is also true that …
Characters and how to provoke them by Lani Longshore Read More »
Writing on vacation is tricky – which is probably why I’ve always failed at it. I take notebooks, printed pages, a variety of pens (because having the right pen makes all the difference), check over the itinerary for “me time” when the rest of the family is golfing. Still, when the room is empty, so …
You’ve just completed a fabulous novel with characters that sizzle and a plot with just the right amount of twists and turns. Now comes that hard part, you have to pitch your story to an agent. The agent is that person who takes it to a publisher and turns it into a best seller where …
Deep in my heart, I know an organized person is a productive person. Putting things down instead of putting them away leads to chaos. Leaving notes scattered around the computer leads to frantic searches for that brilliant idea on character development, or the crucial next plot point that points the way to the perfect ending. …
A writer’s view of organization by Lani Longshore Read More »
by Annette Langer During April-National Volunteers Month-the senior center holds its annual appreciation party. I’d begun volunteering alternate Fridays in the center’s gift shop in exchange for selling my books. I probably wouldn’t know many people at the party but decided to attend anyway-another book marketing opportunity! I arrived after the 6:30pm start, not wanting …
The Mother Goose nursery rhyme of Little Miss Muffet, popular in the early twentieth century, was both delightful and frightening to me when I first heard it many years later. I imagined a little girl sitting on a stool, dipping a spoon into a bowl of something similar to homemade cottage cheese. My fear of …
Miss Muffet, the web and me by Violet Carr Moore Read More »
I called Natalio in August Pine Ridge, Belize on New Year’s Eve, 2009 to catch up on the Belize Open Source property and let him know I am coming in February. Natalio said Christmas had gone well for his family and we wished each other’s families a good new year. “I just drove by the …
At midnight on Halloween, my fingers touch the home row keys of my computer, my eyes on the digital clock in the lower right of the screen. Wait, wait. Not yet. One more minute of ghosts and goblins. At 12:01 a.m. local time, November 1, I click the first keystrokes of a suspense novel that …
“What are you making?” my husband asks. We are sitting in the family room together, he with the newspaper, me with a needle and thread. “An alien,” I answer. “I don’t want to know,” he says quietly, eyes on the sports section. I chuckle, knowing his curiosity will return once he reaches the stock market …
