We tend to think fear is a bad thing, but Neil Mullarkey has a fascinating take on how to make fear work for you. (Warning: The interviewer does drop the F-bomb. These guys are British & different standards apply.) I share this because I think it applies to all of us who have that feeling, "This is the thing I had to do."

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What do you think? Is fear ( Read more... )

This round of revisions of StT is resulting in an even longer manuscript, as I was afraid it would several weeks ago. All the same, I have been forging ahead, counting down the number of scenes I need to draft from scratch (2-ish) and the number I need to revise (5-ish). The "ishes" are because some of the revised scenes are going to be almost ( Read more... )

No more a-roving?

What if our ancestors had not dared,
    had not tested the land
    bridge between Siberia and Alaska,
    struck out toward the edge
    of the maps where monsters 
    or (even more to be feared)
    the unknown lurked,
    traded certain persecution for the risk
    of freedom to fail?
Who are we to dare
    not dream of sailing on ( Read more... )

I was busy type-type-typing to meet my deadline this afternoon when I heard a noise on my skylight and saw


( Read more... )

Progress, although it was on the small side. But 2 new poems and some serious plotting, plus a trip to the library to grab a couple of reference sources to browse tonight (Field guides to the Trees ( Read more... )

Let me tell you a story:

Going on 40 years ago, two fifth grade girls were in a class where part of the language arts was making your own books--writing the stories, illustrating them, giving them to someone else for proofreading, binding them, and eventually sharing them with the class. One of those girls wrote a mystery based on a song. Her ( Read more... )

Probably 10 years ago I took a writing-for-children workshop and started a novel. I never did complete the first draft, because I never found the ending and there were all sorts of other problems. The protagonists were the wrong age for what I thought they could do. But ever since, when I see one of my classmates, she asks me if I''ve finished it ( Read more... )

Probably 10 years ago I took a writing-for-children workshop and started a novel. I never did complete the first draft, because I never found the ending and there were all sorts of other problems. The protagonists were the wrong age for what I thought they could do. But ever since, when I see one of my classmates, she asks me if I''ve finished it ( Read more... )

It's wonderful having an adult child! Last year she had to work, so my husband and I went to our local First Night celebration alone. This year the three of us went and had a great time.  Good entertainment, good food, not too cold, not too much snow.

We started out with a performance by the local taiko drum troupe that was marvelous and ( Read more... )

I didn't make a ton of money today, but I got a lot done. In addition to some rough drafting on a paying job, I a) revised another chapter of my current project, b) prepared a revised picture book manuscript for submission and c) got the voice and the beginning for a project I've been working on for about two years, off and on, that just hasn't ( Read more... )