My fellow writers came through so wonderfully for me yesterday. Thanks to cynleitichsmith, olmue, d_michiko_f, jongibbs, writerjenn, and annan_dum, who all offered words of advice for what to tell writers who avoid reading in their genre for fear of being influenced by someone else's style. @amybluesky chimed in on Twitter. My reserves are replenished for the next writers' group, so thank you all!

I am ( 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... )

Thirty-two years of marriage. They haven't all been easy, but saying "Yes" to HH's proposal was one of the best things I've ever done. I love you, Greg ( Read more... )

1. 700 words added to the current project today and the total 1300 words polished. It's not fiction, the love of my heart, but it comes close, because it's a feature on composting, which got me thinking about summer and being in the garden, and good food, and the food-soil cycle, and all the people I interviewed who were so enthusiastic about the ( Read more... )

1. It's helpful to have multiple writing projects to work on, so that when you are stuck on one, you can move to another, rather than continuing to spin your wheels. I was stuck on a poem for my summer collection yesterday and finally gave up and moved on to The Grove. But later in the day, I came back and made some progress on the same poem.

2. ( Read more... )