I hate winter
And I do not use the word hate, lightly. Ice, snow, wind chill factors, and all the trouble they bring have been one of the greatest struggles of my life. When I was a child, I lived in the more temperate Southern climate of North Carolina. Winters were cold, but seldom deadly. Now I live in Iowa, where winter hurts my face.
I choose to endure this torment for my family’s sake. They love the…
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Happy Holidays!
It’s still the most wonderful time of the year for me. The days between Christmas and New Year’s Day have always been a time of reflection in my life. I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions, but I do try to take a look back at the year gone by and plan for the year ahead. My writing this year has suffered from a lot of bad timing with a move to a new and bigger house (with a private office!),…
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Kindle Vella Update
Photo by Thirdman on Pexels.com
Introducing – The Winnowing
The first episodes of my new Kindle Vella seris have made it through my writer’s group and I’m revising them now. The story is good (IMHO), and I have plenty of twists and turns planned to keep readers turning pages. I’m still not convinced Vella is a perfect fit for me, but I won’t know for sure until I try, right?
Anyway, I’m wading…
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Kindle Vella - My First Attempt
So, I’ve spent a lot of time working on short stories over the past couple of years. Some are arguably better than others, but this spring I found Kindle Vella. It is a tiny new platform on Amazon that is designed especially for short stories. I thought, “What a perfect fit.”
So I have concocted a short story series to try my hand at their episodic short story format. I have my reservations…
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Break the chains of your imagination.
Kids at play
I had a revelation of sorts while I was waiting to find out I’d been rejected again. Not like some broken record of imposter syndrome or anything negative. Instead, I realized I’d been limiting myself with my writing. The insight is simple, but if I forged chains to hold back the breadth of my imagination, maybe others would benefit from reading about my epiphany.
I’ve always…
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Resilience in the face of rejection.
Ouch.
Rejection Hurts
No matter if its a personal rejection or a professional interaction, not being accepted can feel like a punch to the gut. It takes the wind out of my sails more than I’d prefer to admit, but a rejection (or a hundred rejections) doesn’t define a creative. What I do after the punch is what really matters.
Will I shut down the creative process I’ve built up? Should I listen…
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Let me dust this thing off...
Believe it or not, I’m still writing. I’m still seeking out places to send my work to. And I’m still waiting for an answer back from this year’s Veteran’s Writing Program. Honestly, the waiting has put a bit of a slowdown on my other projects. Not because of writer’s block or anything like that, but because I’ve been studying a lot the past three months. I have been studying screenwriting, more…
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Syd Fields, Dan Harmon, and Blake Snyder
I haven’t posted anything here in a while, and most of the posts I have made were short updates. This was going to be another of those posts, but I changed my mind as soon as I started typing the header. I’m still going to give you an update, but I’m going to dive a bit deeper with the content than I have been lately. I hope you enjoy.
What have I been up to?
What a great question, I’m glad I…
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Tom Petty was right...
The waiting is the hardest part.
I haven’t posted here in a while, but I have been busy! I’ve written a new Jack story and started a new short story series. But I’ve done all that to keep my mind occupied while I wait for word back from a writing program and retreat I signed up for in January. Its only been two weeks, and I won’t get an answer back until April. Not knowing is driving me a bit…
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Yes, it's still winter...
Midwinter update.
But spring fever has struck me earlier than normal this year!
I have so many projects in motion right now. I’ve finished a fourth jack story, and I’m so pumped with how the series is coming along. I have the manuscript for Fantastic America out again (fingers crossed). And I’m applying to the Veterans Writers project, which is for screenwriting (something I’ve been studying since last Summer).…
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New Year, new... post.
New Year, new… post.
I’m still here. Still writing. Still querying. Tenacity pays off, right?
Well, if so, I should be getting a serious payback this year.
I hope all is well with you and yours. Happy belated new Year!
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Merry Christmas!!!
Whether you celebrate Yule, Christmas, Chanukah, or nothing at all, may you at least be safe, happy, and warm.
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Am I living through a winter slowdown?
Am I living through a winter slowdown?
I’ve spent the last few years learning how to tell (I mean SHOW) the stories I want to share. Along the way, I took lots of courses, read books on craft, tried lots of writing software, hired coaches, and joined writers’ groups. Altogether I’ve spent thousands of dollars and many hours relentlessly pecking at my keyboard. I’ve made goal lists, checked off boxes, and patted myself on the back for…
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Wednesday's Child: Trying to find Jack a home.
Wednesday’s Child: Trying to find Jack a home.
This summer, I started writing a new series of short stories about a character named Jack. I’ve been trying to find a home for these stories in print or online, but that hasn’t stopped my muse from giving more to write. So far, I’m on Jack’s fourth installment. I have about twenty more stories outlined, but there is little or no limit to how this series can develop.
Case in point, I was…
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Confronting Mortality
I nearly died Saturday night. That would’ve sounded like the setup for a joke to me, until I woke up in the emergency room. There was nothing quippy or funny about my condition, or the surety that I’d put myself there.
My health has been less than optimal since 2005, but I’ve changed my habits very little in response. I became more sedentary, and missed the more active lifestyle I’d had before.…
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Rome Fires My Imagination...
Rome Fires My Imagination…
Years ago, I had the opportunity to visit Rome. By then I’d already read some Roman history and had a detached appreciation for the Eternal City. Walking through the ruins was a different experience altogether. My writing often reflects the two extremes of my imagination and our modern reality.
The glory of Rome faded well over fifteen hundred years ago. The city today is still impressive, but a…
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The perfect elements of writing exist.
The perfect elements of writing exist.
The problem for me is getting those elements on the page to remain acceptable outside my head. There is so much subjective and connective tissue lost between my imagination and how those ideas translate into words, that I have trouble not feeling like they have become the two dimensional T-rex from the meme above. Other writers may have this problem too, and my only advice for combatting the…
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