My quest for health is paved with good intentions — and erratic execution. Last year this time, I was recovering from one knee surgery and getting ready for a second, but health wise, I was doing better and better. Then I lost a bit of steam as we slid into fall and have taken a few stabs at getting back … Read More
Do You Believe?
A couple nights ago, I took a rare moment and watched a movie. Not something I have an opportunity to do very often because I’m juggling so many different things, but it had been a rough week and I needed to decompress a bit. I chose Little Boy, which is set in World War II times, and is primarily about … Read More
Omniscient Point of View
Last week I talked about head hopping and why we shouldn’t and I mentioned the omniscient POV (Point of View) as not being a part of the discussion. Head hopping means jumping from character to character and changing viewpoint. Omniscient is an unseen/unknown narrator who knows what everyone is thinking or feeling. I had the following question asked of me, … Read More
Why Not Head Hop?
In addition to working on getting my current WIP, Speak No Evil polished up and ready for submission, I have been working with several authors and guiding them through the same process, and reviewing other manuscripts and providing assessments. While assessing the manuscripts, I’m looking at voicing, structure, flow, the strength of the work, including active vs. passive writing. One … Read More
Make the Future and What IF?
Writers tend to deal in the realm of “what if” … What if a baby wizard was orphaned and survived being killed by the darkest wizard of them all? What if that baby had to grow up and ultimately kill the dark wizard in order to save the wizarding world from destruction? A couple what ifs like that and an … Read More
The Journey: Writing and Weight Loss
In my day job, I do work that involves logic and things following a path. 1+2 always = 3 and never 5. So there is a part of me that wants other aspects of my life to follow the same logical path. And they never do. I have two primary focuses at the moment: Getting healthy and finishing my current … Read More
YWS: Writing as a Life Skill
Writing is a life skill; something we all need to get through life. The better your writing skills are, the better able you are to improve your standarad of life. Writing is not something you learn for school assignments and never use again once you graduate — it is something you will use for the rest of your life. I’m … Read More
Put Me In Coach
Being a professional in any field takes hard work, dedication, and more patience than most of us want to admit is required. As a writer, I have always approached my work from a professional aspect, and realize nothing in the publishing industry is overnight. I am, and have been, in it for the long haul, which means I have been … Read More
Hello, Shiny New Year
It is that time of year. We’re saying good-bye to one year, and looking forward to the next hoping we realize all of the dreams we didn’t over the past 12 months, and adding a few new things for good measure. Many will make resolutions and many of those resolutions will be broken before we put January in the history … Read More
YWS: How Authors Get Story Ideas
One of the questions that most fiction authors are asked at one point or another is “how did you get the idea for the story?” Sometimes this is a hard question to answer. The easy answer is: LIFE Actually, there are several ways in which an author can come up with an idea for a book. Through reading or hearing … Read More
Advice from Singer
I have seen this graphic floating around social media and every time I see it, I have a good laugh. First because I am a self-proclaimed non-domestic goddess… and yes, when you practice non-domesticity with the flair I do, you achieve goddess status. Second because the “advice” was part of a manual and is simply ridiculous in context of today’s … Read More
The Year Ahead
A week ago I was goofing off on Twitter … I mean taking a brief, but necessary writing break … when I saw a graphic floating by that said, “A year ago, I would’ve never pictured my life the way it is now.” In that moment I realized how profoundly true those words were about my life and this past … Read More