I’m late posting this, I know! I know! And instead of posting a “how to,” I’ve been working on the cover and the formatting of my short story, and it’s done! Yay! I am super excited to announce that In the Mirror is now available for free on Smashwords in all major ebook formats. My wonderful and talented sister MarshaLee did the drawing for the frame on the cover. Please visit and download it! If you like what you read, please consider mentioning it to your friends and passing the link along. If you would leave a review of the book on […]
Shopping for Inspiration (or Isn’t Amazon Fun?)
Shopping is not just a job, it’s an adventure! I’ve spent an unconscionable amount of time trying to find new window-coverings for my bedroom. Not only is everything that I actually like extremely pricey, but I’m trying to pull together this nebulous “offbeat traditional” thing we (sorta) have going in the rest of the house. Buying new curtains is going to require painting, as well, and that’s actually work! I have come across some lovely ideas for massively huge and insanely expensive rooms. I take comfort in the fact that my room is small and will therefore require much less […]
Make Me Believe It
“You’re late,” Sara said. “I’m sorry,” Mark said. “I had to stay at work longer than I expected.” “You have been very busy there,” she said. “Hot and cold running water aren’t that important.” “Did you stop at the store for some milk?” Here we have some dialogue between two people, but what can you tell from this exchange? What sort of emotions can you recognize? Nothing? Without emotion there’s no tension, and the dialogue serves no purpose. Think of your story as a stage play. “Sara, darling! You’re angry at Mark. Growl at him! Slam doors! Make me believe […]
Prisoner
Fridays are my “anything goes” days. Fridays are the days I blog about whatever tickles my fancy. The subject will vary. Wildly. It could me, or it could be you. It could be a book I’ve read, a movie I’ve seen, my garden, artwork, the kids that soaked my garbage can (sitting out at the curb patiently awaiting the arrival of the sanitation truck) with soda pop… Today it’s a story. A flash of fiction. I hope you enjoy. 🙂 ———÷——— Matt felt like a gopher. On all sides stood towering mountains of projects that needed to […]
Gimme Five!
Does your story seem flat and lackluster? Give it a little sparkle and engage your reader by engaging their senses! We are all born with five senses – seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling – and yet we are often so frequently caught up in our day-to-day lives or in achieving a word count goal that we tend to overlook those vital elements, both in our writing and in our living. Have you ever been reading a story about a beautiful, placid forest and perhaps smelled a hint of the sweet brook tumbling through? That is the power of the mind. […]
Stories Without Words
I love to write. Really love to write… But sometimes the words just don’t come to me. All right, that’s not true. Words come, but they’re not good words. They’re not beautiful and descriptive and emotive – or even well-rounded. I struggle to put down on paper (or screen, as the case may be) what I can see in my mind or feel in my heart, but the words just don’t flow. Worse, they often seem to mock me. Kind of like they’re doing right now, actually… This is the time when I tend to take advantage of one of […]
Awash in Inspiration
Inspiration: the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, esp. to do something creative. I have had days – and plenty of ’em! – when I have felt particularly unimaginative, pedestrian, and even downright spiritless. Sometimes I call it ‘writer’s block.’ Sometimes I just cave in and describe it as depression. It’s easy to blame my lack of creativity on outside sources. What is not so easy is finding a way to open myself to the boundless sources of inspiration that surround me. Alan Baxter gave some excellent pictorial examples in his article, Real World Inspiration For Fantasy and […]
Six to One, Half a Dozen to the Other…
Eggs, that is. Yes, some darling delinquent(s) egged us. Miraculously, they only hit one out of three cars. Pretty good aiming, right? Too bad they didn’t miss the house, too. But noooooo… There was egg from front to back along one side (the peak side) and most of the way up to the roof. Unfortunately, it was also the east side, and was sizzling already when my daughter told me about the incident a little after 8 a.m. The good news is that laundry detergent worked pretty well to get it off, due to the enzymes it contains. The bad […]
Does Your Writing Work?
Today hasn’t gone according to plan at all – but I’m not complaining! I spent a lovely time outside doing some much needed gardening. That lasted until the neighbor came outside with a radio and ruined the peace and quiet. Indoors again, I popped over to FaceBook before knuckling down to do some writing and/or editing, and there was my daughter, inviting me out to lunch! Sweet! I’d already had lunch by that time, so she grabbed a burger and we went over to Yogurt Nut (Mmmm, frozen cheesecake yogurt with blackberries!). The weather was so incredibly perfect that we […]
I’m Alive! + Monday Mashup
It’s horrifying how cooking your brain at 102° for three days can completely turn it to mush. Fortunately, it’s a temporary condition. I think… Alack and alas, I got clobbered with the flu, which was quickly followed by a sinus infection, and then other assorted and unpleasant Uglies that decided to take advantage of the situation. I am wildly grateful for antibiotics, health clinics that are open in the evening, and for Hubby & Co. taking care of the household stuff for the first three days. I am also pleased to report that after nine days I am beginning to […]