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Story Weekend: First Car
You may have earned the money to buy it, or it may have been your parents’, or you may have stolen it. Whatever! One way or another, most of us have feelings about our first car. I’d love to hear yours. If you’re new to Story Weekend, here’s how it works: I pick a theme…
Read MoreWe Need a Few Good Movie Stars
One of my Facebook friends, Stephanie, asked me what actors I’d like to see play my characters in the movie versions of my books. I hasten to add there are no movie versions planned at the moment, but we can fantasize, can’t we? I’d love to know who you think should play some of the…
Read MoreOne More Chance to Win a Bookstore Gift Certificate!
Guess what today is? It’s your last chance to win a $100 gift certificate to the bookstore (online or bricks and mortar) of your choice. Tomorrow I’ll use a random number generator to pick from all the comments my blog’s received in the last month and a half. I’ll cut off the contest tonight, December…
Read MoreWhat's on Your Creativity Agenda This Week?
We’re at the beach for a few days of writing and photography. Here’s the sunset view from my deck captured with my iPad (clearly I’m not the photographer!). I’ll be writing with pen on paper tomorrow, as I like to do every once in a while to tap into a different part of my brain,…
Read MoreStory Weekend: Your Childhood Kitchen
I’m a little late getting Story Weekend up this weekend due to company, but here we go! Sometimes when I teach workshops on characterization, I have participants do an exercise I always find helpful. First, I have them close their eyes and then remember the kitchen from their childhood home–everything they can see and hear…
Read MoreIntroducing "Backlist E-Books!"
A little more than a year ago, I spent a couple of weeks going crazy as I taught myself how to format one of my out of print books, Secret Lives, for the Kindle. I thought I was not only losing my mind, but wasting my time as well. I had no idea how wrong…
Read MoreWhat are You Reading?
It’s time to check in with what we’re reading, but first a little update. We’re at the beach for two weeks! Yeah! It’s gray, but the ocean is still beautiful and the beach looks none the worse for wear since the Hurricane, though when we arrived here last night, it was high tide and the…
Read MoreHow Many Fiction Writers does it take to Fantasize a Disaster?
Many years ago when I lived in Virginia, a few friends and I put together a writers’ group. We met regularly and read and critiqued each others’ work. There was a core group of five or six of us and a few folks who came for a week or a few months or a year…
Read MoreStory Weekend Theme: Porches
Either you have a porch or you wish you had a porch. It’s true, isn’t it? (Or if it isn’t, I bet there’s a story there too). I’m lucky enough to have a screened porch for the first time in my adult life, and oh, how I love working out there. I’d love to know…
Read MoreStory Weekend Theme: Mailboxes
What’s your mailbox story? Do you decorate yours for the holidays? Did you receive something extraordinary in yours once upon a time? Did a neighbor kid who doesn’t like you put something icky inside? The mailbox in the picture was painted for me by my stepdaughter, Brittany, (aka Pretty Handy Girl) as a surprise, back…
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