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I read an interesting item on publishers doing background checks on authors to ensure they’re not taking a chance on some crazy whack. When I searched my name on Google I had some expected results and some that surprised me. EXPECTED Links associated with my work as writer/editor at Goodwill Industries International, the American Nurses Association, or the UN/World Health Organization. Links about me being the executive director at the Women’s Resource Center. My blog, The Writing Life. Me being a party in a lawsuit to expand rights of independent political candidates to gain ballot access. UNEXPECTED Random Tweet that... Read More0

Today’s assignment was to write a 26-sentence story, each sentence beginning with a different letter of the alphabet (in order), one sentence had to be one word, one sentence had to be 1oo words, and you could substitute a letter for x or z. Lots of fun. So much fun I convinced my writer nephew to do the same. Can’t wait to share stories. Class today, however, was a little uncomfortable. The writer who probably needed the most tender treatment seemed to get it from all sides. Several writers just seemed too brusque, too flip, too off-handed in their criticisms.... Read More0

Last September I blogged about a book called “What If? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers.” One exercise asked the writer to kill a dog. The thought being if an actor can portray a serial killer with realism, writers must be able to write about things they have never done and may never do — rob a bank, rule a country, kill a dog. My nephew, Hunter, also a writer, is living with us this summer. He and I kind of moped around most of the day, not really wanting to do anything but not wanting to sit around either. We... Read More0