Blog

Getting There One Kick in the Butt at a Time

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31 Aug 2011
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This evening, I’m working on my application for Hedgebrook, a women’s writing residency on Whidbey Island near Seattle. Thought I’d share my answer to one of the questions on the application. Now you have some insight to how I became a fiction writer! Who or what has influenced or inspired you and your writing? I wasn’t one of those girls who knew at age six that she wanted to be a writer. I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up – except a thousand miles from the town of 1,200 where I lived. Then, several teachers...
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Spying, Eavesdropping and Other Techniques for Location Research

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24 Aug 2011
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Last year, I met an interesting writer named Jeff Posey. At the time, he was the chief organizer of the Dallas Fort Worth Writers’ Conference. I soon found out he’s familiar with Southwest Colorado, and even plans to move to Pagosa Springs one day, a community just 45 minutes from where I live in Durango. Because we both recently conducted location research for our novels in progress, we thought we’d have an online ‘chat’ and then share our insights with other writers (and anyone else interested in our writing journeys). Below is an excerpt and then a link to the...
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Virtually Impossible to Feel Alone

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20 Aug 2011
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Recently, a friend asked if I feel isolated as a writer. I do at times, because I’m one of those “in your head” people in the first place. I feel most isolated when I struggle to explain to non-writer friends why I put up with rejection, self doubt and a rapidly changing, and often times, subjective industry. Or, when I try to describe the exhilaration of a great writing day or an agent request for chapters. That’s why it’s so important for me to connect with other writers, even if that’s virtually. My connections to the following folks have been...
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A World That’s Touch and Go?

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09 Aug 2011
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I love when three seemingly random occurrences suddenly gel as an aha! moment. The theme today is tangibility, as in “that which can be discerned by touch.” Here are the occurrences that started me on the tangibility tangent. My musician friend Tim just self-released a CD and my copy arrived in the mail last week. I held it in my hand and thought, “Wow. This is for friggin’ real.” I put it in my car CD player and whoa, there’s Tim playing guitar and singing his heart out. A work colleague sent me some black and white photos of spectacular...
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Humidity as Thick as Cheese Grits (I Must Be in Opelika)

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23 Jul 2011
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As I write this, I’m sitting on the veranda of the clubhouse at the Robert Trent Jones Grand National Golf Course in Opelika, Alabama. It’s 95 degrees and the humidity is as thick as the cheese grits I ate for breakfast. Still, I’m enjoying my view of the 18th green. You see, it’s where a funeral service will be held for Ned Pinckney, a murder victim in my next book. I’m spending a couple of days here in Opelika to soak in the unique atmosphere (kind of like all the grease my body is soaking up because I insist on...
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Is the Grass Really Greener in Paris?

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06 Jul 2011
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On July 4th, my nephew and I saw a movie while the rest of the family golfed. I chose “Midnight in Paris,” Woody Allen’s new movie, because it was at the local theatre with the best popcorn. While a bit sentimental, the film still held a lot of charm in the way it demonstrated the age-old illusion people have that a life different than theirs would somehow be better. The movie’s main character, a writer, “time travels” each midnight to his idea of the golden age: 1920s Paris. He rubs shoulders with F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Picasso, Hemingway, Dali,...
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Can We Exercise Our Imaginations?

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22 Jun 2011
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I recently saw a tweet from an agent who said she wanted to thwack the next writer who talked about his or her muse. She asserted that writing’s hard work and that you can’t wait for inspiration to strike. I agree with the “not waiting” part but I also think we can develop our ability to be inspired. We can make it a proactive process. This notion was triggered by my responses to two photos I ran across. A dear friend sent a photo of her grandsons at play — that unabashedly joyful time as children where we easily suspend...
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Does Your Gratitude Adjustment Include Leprechauns and Red Leotards?

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16 Jun 2011
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Last week, Andy’s back went to spasms so I had to drive him to a massage appointment one evening. Bored and with nothing to do in the waiting room, I began leafing through a small book on the coffee table titled 14,000 Things to Be Happy About by Barbara Ann Kipfer. The author kept a list for 20-something years and then threw it all together for a book. (What can’t be published these days?) Some things that made Barbara Ann happy were: Absurd – leprechauns, red leotards, Sun-In hair lightener , the TV show “Dallas” Admirable – world peace, love,...
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LINKS FOR WRITERS
   
WRITING RESOURCES
  • “On Writing,” by Stephen King
  • “What If? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers,” by Ann Bernays and Pamela Painter
  • “250 Things You Should Know about Writing,” by Chuck Wendig
  • “Unless It Moves the Human Heart: The Craft and Art of Writing,” by Roger Rosenblatt
  • “The Fire in Fiction: Passion, Purpose, and Techniques to Make Your Novel Great,” by Donald Maass
  • “How to Grow a Novel: The Most Common Mistakes Writers Make and How to Overcome Them,” by Sol Stein