From the category archives:

Writing

The Art of Correspondence: A Month of Letters

February 2, 2012 Life

When Care (Care’s Online Book Club) told me about her goal of writing a letter a day this year, I knew it was something I really wanted to do, too.
But an entire year of writing a letter a day? A year was just way too overwhelming. It was okay that I didn’t actually know 365 [...]

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My Mid-January Goals Update

January 19, 2012 Books and Reading

One of the perks of blogging is the truly awesome accountability tool it can be. It’s mid-January already (four days past the mid-point, actually) so what better way to motivate myself goal-wise than post this little update?
So how have I been doing with all my new year goals? Well …
This week has actually been the [...]

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The Big Catch-Up Post

November 12, 2011 Life

It’s been six days since we moved into our new place in the city, and while I’ve been active on Twitter, I haven’t been here on the blog at all. So I thought it was time for The Big Catch-up Post!
The Move
The actual move itself went quite well. We hired a fabulous moving company that [...]

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Saving the Cat This NaNoWriMo

November 1, 2011 Writing

Yes, it’s true.
Big Move + Busy Work Season + NaNoWriMo = Total Chaos and Crazy Making
It’s not that I’m a glutton for punishment. The truth is, the past four or five months have been so chaotic, I haven’t really written much of anything.
And that, in itself, has been driving me crazy. Not writing [...]

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Index Cards (Or Writer’s Block? What Writer’s Block?)

August 20, 2011 Writing

There’s an old saying about when something’s not working, you’re never going to get a different result by doing the same thing. Or something like that (I’m the same way with wise old sayings and proverbs as I am with clichés – I mangle them to bits, unintentionally).
What with planning for our move to [...]

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The Summer Update Post

August 15, 2011 Life

I’ve been quiet lately, both on the blog and also out and about in the blog world and on Twitter. But there’s been a lot of stuff happening here over the summer!
The publishing industry is definitely getting back to speed – and from my perspective, it’s not just back on track after a couple of [...]

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R to Z: It’s a Wrap!

April 27, 2011 Blogging and Blog Events

Blogging challenges aren’t really my thing, but I have absolutely no regrets about doing the A to Z Challenge.
For one thing, I discovered the magical way writing prompts work.
And I also found some new blogging and writing friends along the way.
For my wrap-up post, I thought I’d take a look back at what April’s brought [...]

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Mind Your Ps and Qs

April 20, 2011 Blogging and Blog Events

I’m known around here as a first-class mangler of phrases and clichés.
For some reason, I have a really tough time with clichés and idioms. I’m always getting them wrong. Take “pedal to the metal”, for instance. For years, I’d say “Petal to the metal”. It rhymes, after all!
So this morning I woke up [...]

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I is for Ingenuity (And Here I Take Care of J, K, L and M, Too)

April 15, 2011 Blogging and Blog Events

I is for Ingenuity
Ingenuity? You’re looking at it! Isn’t this the most ingenious post ever? I don’t even have to resort to K is for Ketchup to write a catch-up post for the A to Z Challenge!
(And no, no-one has to know I actually wrote “ingenuous” in that first sentence, and there it stayed until [...]

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G is for Gestation

April 11, 2011 Blogging and Blog Events

The prompts: (1) yelling for help; (2) dirty; and (3) magazine. The archetype card: Implies the unknown: ignorance or desperation; evil.
And of course, “G”, for today’s A to Z Challenge post.
This is a rather trite and predictable scene, but hey, it’s practice, right? Plus, I’m back on track now with my A-Z posts!
*********************
He found [...]

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April Sparks – Blogging From A to Z in April

March 12, 2011 Blogging and Blog Events

As I had mentioned a few weeks ago, I’ve taken the plunge and signed up for the Blogging From A to Z April Challenge.
We’re nearing the middle of the month, so April will be here pretty soon. And I’ve been thinking a bit more about my posts for April.
So far, I’ve created my writing [...]

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On Writing: Getting Productive

March 10, 2011 Writing

It’s taken me a little while, but I’m finally recovered from my recent four months of nonstop deadlines.
And I’m ready now to plunge back into seriously writing.
I intend for this year to be a really productive year when it comes to my writing. Last night, I came across this post at Dean Wesley Smith’s blog: [...]

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Wednesday Fun: Character Cards

March 2, 2011 Writing

I’m stuck. I’m at a certain point in my WIP where I really need to know more about the world I’ve created. Half the novel takes place there, the other half in “the real world”, and the scenes taking place in the “real world” storyline have outstripped the other scenes.
And I’m stuck because I [...]

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Battling Writer’s Procrastination

February 27, 2011 Writing

It’s 12:48 am right now; I seem to have developed a habit this week of opening up Scrivener (my writing program) at the stroke of 1, so that I can get my daily bit of writing down.
Then, you see, I can go to bed, feeling, for today, I’ve done what I’m meant to be [...]

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Inspiration Monday: Word After Word After Word, by Patricia MacLachlan

February 21, 2011 Books and Reading

Word After Word After Word, by Patricia MacLachlan, is, technically, a children’s book. I was charmed by the synopsis when I first came across it while browsing my library’s online ebook collection:
Every school day feels the same for fourth graders Lucy and Henry and Evie and Russell and May. Then Ms. Mirabel comes to [...]

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Inspiration Monday: Love, Prompts and Comments

January 10, 2011 Creativity

I’ve been thinking a lot about inspiration lately. And since this is January, the month of fresh starts, I’m coming up with a lot of new intentions. One of these intentions is living an inspired life.
I love feeling inspired; too often inspiration tends to come when I’m deep in deadlines (like I am this month). [...]

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[TSS] My Year of Creativity

January 2, 2011 Books and Reading

I’m not one to make resolutions – they just don’t work for me. And perhaps it’s a matter of semantics; “resolutions” and “resolve” have a hard-edged feel for me, and I much prefer the softer ease of “intention”.
So at the beginning of each new year, I like to make some general intentions for the days [...]

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The Holiday Catch-Up Post

January 1, 2011 Books and Reading

Happy new year, everyone! It was a very hectic December for me, as evidenced by the scarcity of posts here. And after I finished my last deadline for the year, I came down with the flu. Christmas week was kind of a blur for me as a result, but this past week has been great, [...]

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NaNoWriMo Win!

November 30, 2010 Writing

I did it! I must admit, I got so bogged down with deadlines, for a while there it was all a “maybe”.
But yes, I did it. 50,329 words. I’m only about halfway through, so plan on finishing up by the end of the year.
Now back to all those deadlines …
Pin it

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Making Magic: Appreciation

November 23, 2010 Creativity

(Photo credit)
I am immersed in deadline after deadline right now, and in days of yore (I’ve always wanted to use that phrase in a post!) I would have let myself be pulled into a static, drone-like existence, working long hours day after day, late into the night.
No fun, no creativity, no laughter. Just work, work, [...]

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Interview: Alex Cavanaugh Talks About His Writing Process

November 10, 2010 Writing

I recently had the opportunity to talk with Alex Cavanaugh, author of CassaStaR, about his writing process, and I’m very pleased to feature the interview here today!
CassaStaR is a debut sci-fi novel about which the Library Journal wrote, “…calls to mind the youthful focus of Robert Heinlein’s early military sf, as well as the excitement [...]

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My Real NaNoWriMo Goal

November 6, 2010 Writing

So it’s still the 6th day of NaNoWriMo, and right now my word count is at 20,381. This is good, but actually not quite where I was hoping to be by today.
This year, I decided on a different NaNoWriMo goal. Rather than aim for 50,000 words, what I’d really like to do is get [...]

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The Day Before NaNoWriMo Starts

October 31, 2010 Writing

I know. Most people think of October 31 as Halloween. I have a seven-year-old, so you’d think I’d be sitting here thinking about Halloween and taking him out trick-or-treating tonight too.
But no, not me. All I can think is this: today’s the last day before NaNoWriMo starts!
I haven’t done that much prepping, partly because my [...]

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Trying Out Scrivener for Windows, Beta Version

October 27, 2010 Writing

I have a little pocket of time tonight – guess what I’ll be doing? That’s right! I’ll be exploring the new Scrivener for Windows, beta version!
I’ve been hearing such wonderful things about Scrivener from other writers, but up until recently, it’s only been available for Mac users. But they’ve just released a beta [...]

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Single-Minded Focus: It’s Just Not Me

October 23, 2010 Creativity

I spent this summer deeply focused on one aspect of my personal life. I gave all my energy to it (some of you may have noticed that the frequency of my blog posts dropped dramatically during this time, as did my Twitter and Facebook updates)
And yes, I did reap the rewards of this single-minded focus.
Except [...]

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NaNoWriMo the Longhand Way

October 15, 2010 Writing

I’ve been thinking about doing NaNoWriMo a little differently this year.
I recently stumbled on this post on Neil Gaiman’s blog from back in 2007, when he was in the middle of writing The Graveyard Book (I got there, as usual, by some convoluted route while I was procrastinating. It’s how I find most of the [...]

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Interview: Erick Setiawan Talks About His Writing Process

October 13, 2010 Blogging and Blog Events

Erick Setiawan has written a rich, lyrical novel in OF BEES AND MIST. In this interview, MsBookish.com got the chance to talk with Erick about his writing process.

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The Cart Before the Horse (Sort Of)

October 9, 2010 Writing

It does seem a bit like putting the cart before the horse, but after spending the morning reading through the archives of agent Janet Reid’s Query Shark, I began formulating the query for ELEMENTAL in my mind.
Since I’ve only written 9,938 words of what will probably end up being a 110,000 word manuscript, it seems [...]

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