Thursdays are special. My writing friends take me to their worlds. We might spend time with a bounty hunter in Las Vegas or look over the shoulder of a small town Kansas cop. We are in the future – a bleak one – in the Pacific Northwest. We relive the turbulent ’60s in the South. Or…
“The first draft is nothing but your ingredients. Once you have them in front of you–a beginning, a middle, an end, and all your characters–then and only then can you write your novel.”–Tiffany Reisz. I call it my rough draft. Rough, first, whatever. I took a different approach to Battle Scars. I’d worked from an…
This. In a Bah! Humbug! kinda way. I’m not talking about Christmas. I’m lamenting the frustrations of working with technology. Can that be my excuse for not posting my usual “Thursday Walks” yesterday? If the truth be told, my tardiness is due to two adventures that side-tracked me this week: 1) formatting my manuscript for…
The last ~4,000 words of my novel were well received at writers group last week. Satisfying, passionate, touching, emotional. Tied up all the loose ends. YES! I don’t want you to think my writer friends just say glowing things because if all they did was squee then I wouldn’t grow as a writer. (Please, if…
I attend an (almost) weekly gathering of writers here in town. Cathy, Mark, and Marie have eagerly offered their critiques on the writing I’ve subjected them to, everything from Star Wars to historical fiction, poetry to drabbles, and my current endeavor, Keeping the Family Peace. For almost three years, I’ve heard words of encouragement that…
