Blog

Reading About Writing

Reading About Writing

I hesitate to write this, because writing fiction can’t really be taught. The mechanics of writing can be – nouns, verbs, sentence structure, etc. Even things like how to create well-rounded characters and rich settings and descriptions can be taught. What can’t be...

Owning Your Books

Owning Your Books

Most of the time the things I write about on this blog are just things I want to write about. There’s not a particular theme. Sometimes it will be about something going on in my life, sometimes it will be about writing, and sometimes I’ll ask you to brainstorm with me...

On Friends and Family in Writing

On Friends and Family in Writing

From early on, we are told “write what you know.” If every writer followed this advice, we wouldn’t have science fiction, or fantasy, or the always-sappy happily-ever-after of romance novels. These are often not real life experiences, so how can someone “know” about...

The Pro and Con of Outlines

The Pro and Con of Outlines

A lot has changed for my writing life in just the first two and a half months of this year. The class I took at the end of 2023 motivated me to get a lot done and look to organization for help. For years, I’ve been a “pantser” when it comes to writing fiction. That...

Success in Cooking

Success in Cooking

As I said before, my mother calls it “an adventure in eating.” There’s another saying: third time’s the charm. That’s valid in this case. Due to my son being sick on the day of the Scout event we were making this for, I skipped making it altogether the “first time.”...

Goodbye Vella

Goodbye Vella

This month’s Kindle Vella blog post was meant to announce this month’s story. Sadly, instead, this month’s post is about leaving the platform. If you haven’t read the last installments of The Next Keeper, I’ll be leaving it as well as The Normal Day, and The Elevator...