It started with onions and garlic.  After many years of thinking he had a sensitive stomach and various possible gastrointestinal issues, my husband figured out that he had a food allergy.  Annoying and frustrating, but as soon as he cut the onions and garlic from his diet, his digestive issues started going away.  Yay ( Read more... )

Which is to say- it's both burned out and busy, and having trouble focusing on my day job work ( Read more... )

Writing a novel synopsis is hard I found, harder than writing the novel.  A novel is carried by the story, the characters, the world, and lots and lots of words to describe them.  A synopsis just has the words, trying to make the story and characters and world shine as quickly as possible ( Read more... )

It amazes and delights me that, no matter how much outlining and planning I've done, the moment I set pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) I always learn something new about my characters or their world or the story I'm telling.  Wheee!  I love being a writer ( Read more... )

Still writing, I mean.  This has been a very rough year in a lot of ways so it amazes me that I've managed to accomplish anything, much less finished one novel and started on another.  But I did!  The first draft of my adult science fiction work in progress is complete- it's got a beginning, a middle, an end, a theme, character growth, decent ( Read more... )

One thing I have learned about being stuck in my writing is that the sticking point is often not where I think it is ( Read more... )

This year at least, June is for writing.  I'm going to the Writing the Other workshop/retreat followed almost immediately by Fourth Street Fantasy.  While I'm pretty excited about this, I'm also behind where I wanted to be in my writing before the retreat.  Instead of being ready for a full revision of the current WIP, I'm still going to be ( Read more... )

I'm still in New Zealand, though not for much longer.  It's been a fabulous trip!  We scheduled in two weekends for sightseeing, and took advantage of both.  I have now sailed in Akaroa harbor, wandered the botanical gardens in Christchurch, visited the LotR Edoras filming site, and eaten delicious food at many restaurants in the area ( Read more... )

I need to recognize that my plotting brain does not understand the term 'simple'. This novel I'm working on was supposed to be just that- one PoV, one story, easy to plot and write. Simple. It started out that way, or at least looked like it did. Now, as I'm struggling to write the final confrontation, I have to admit that my 'simple' comes out ( Read more... )

I love mysteries. I love being challenged by a difficult puzzle, figuring out how the pieces fit together, discovering the final picture that the pieces reveal. I really don't enjoy being the puzzle, being the medical mystery I have to hope my doctor will figure out. Soon, hopefully ( Read more... )