It has been a good month and a half since I posted. Blame it on a week at the national SCBWI Conference in Los Angeles, which was wonderful, and on the Dread MFA Packet Deadline. --I say "dread" with all due affection, rather like Wesley refers to the "Dread Pirate Roberts" in The Princess BrideAn update is long overdue ( Read more... )

I'm starting a new project for my final semester. I'm not ready to talk about it yet, because it's still at the stage where it feels like entering a strange new house at midnight--not the teen stalker/slasher flick sort of house, but one I've been invited to by a friend. Still, it's a new house and it's dark and I've got to find my way around ( Read more... )

Sara Zarr has a marvelously inspirational post on her blog today. If you haven't read it, please do. It's here. In particular, I'm drawn to the idea that gratitude is a huge part of what keeps romance of all sorts alive, whether it is with work or with a person ( Read more... )

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I had coffee the other day with a friend I haven’t seen in well over a year. Don’s an indie musician (check out a few tracks from his latest album here) who lives life-a very good life-on his own terms.

One of the things that came up in our hour together was how lucky we both feel to be doing what we love. We are energized by what we do, as patched ( Read more... )

Since I've started work on my something new, aka Triple D, I've been aware that where I am now is similar to where I was a year ago. With one crucial difference. Triple D is not the gift from the universe that StT was and has been. I'm not drawing so fully on my own realm of knowledge. Which is fine. It's good to mix it up ( Read more... )

kellyrfineman called her year-end, looking-back, looking-forward post "Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering" and I liked it so much I'm riffing on it, even though I somehow completely missed Pinky and the Brain *hangs head in shame at cultural illiteracy*.

In some ways this year felt like running hurdles, which if I ever attempted it in real life would have ( Read more... )

Today I wrote 1800 words in the morning and then almost doubled that in an afternoon/evening session. That's 11 pages in one day. I don't know that I have ever done that with fiction before. Some of that volume can be explained by the fact that these pages incorporated two scenes I had scribbled into my notebook. I was not, in fact, making it all ( Read more... )

Ah, the life of a freelance writer and editor! 
At my desk by 8:30 am (since this was a rainy summer day). Check email. Write my weekly column for the local paper. Break for a walk to the post office and corner grocery. Start work on a short free-lance editing job by 11. Work for an hour. Break for lunch with 17-year-old wanna-be-writer daughter. ( Read more... )