Last night, after a very inspirational writers conference, I watched an episode of It’s Me or the Dog that left me rather emotional. Not that the family in question underwent any moving transformation or anything. This crazy woman had rescued four dogs. One was “aggressive” and fought with another. Trainer Victoria Stilwell helped by havingContinue reading “Find strength in what remains behind”
Category Archives: fiction
If you liked The Hunger Games and Harry Potter, you’ll love Shadow and Bone
I mean that in the most sincere, best possible way. And I don’t mean that Shadow and Bone (written by my close, personal friend Leigh Bardugo) is irritatingly derivative of those young adult fantasy powerhouses. Rather, it is an incredibly original book that happens to share some of the qualities that make those books soContinue reading “If you liked The Hunger Games and Harry Potter, you’ll love Shadow and Bone”
Warrior, come out and play
Since I’m writing a novel about mixed martial arts, I was excited when I first saw the trailer for Warrior. It looked like The Fighter, right down to the rivalry between brothers, except about MMA instead of boxing. I didn’t give much thought about whether the movie would be good or not; it didn’t matter.Continue reading “Warrior, come out and play”
Write what you know
When I started NaNoWriMo in November 2009, I wanted to write something that was actually fiction, rather than a thinly veiled version of my life. I thought, “What can I write about, that I know a lot about, but that wouldn’t be about me?” Of course! Mixed martial arts. Rob’s passion. I gave up tryingContinue reading “Write what you know”
Early criticism
Trains of thought are funny things. I was driving home from book club, thinking about a caption I wrote under a photo of Leo on Facebook. I wrote, “Leo smiles more ever since Mia joined the family.” I wondered if maybe I should delete the “ever.” Yes, I actually copy edit myself after I’ve postedContinue reading “Early criticism”
A revised fable
Apparently Aesop’s got a fable about an ant and a grasshopper. In my writing class, we were asked to rewrite the fable so the grasshopper looks good, is triumphant, even. As far as I was concerned, there was only one way to do that. My fable: The bugs emerged from the long winter in aContinue reading “A revised fable”
Honing the craft
I’m so happy my writing class is back in session. I volunteered to turn in pages at the first class last week, so last night I got to hear great feedback and advice from my teacher and classmates. I already was inspired deeply by last week’s class and the suggestions I got for rewriting aContinue reading “Honing the craft”
My alternative lifestyle
While on vacation the three days before Christmas, I decided to pretend I’m a different kind of writer. The kind the writes from home. I volunteered to turn in 10 pages at my fiction writing class on the first day back after the break. On top of that, we have another writing assignment we’re supposedContinue reading “My alternative lifestyle”
Wasted time
Last night, my novel-writing teacher described her creative process. “It’s not very efficient, but then, being creative is rarely efficient.” I’m efficient in a great many ways. The journalistic writing that earns my paycheck, generally, is efficient. But other aspects of my life are not. I walked around on a broken sesamoid bone for sixContinue reading “Wasted time”
In defense of quitting
I’m not really quitting…just postponing, delaying, failing to meet a deadline. (Have I ever missed a deadline before? I don’t think so). The last time I wrote anything in my Nanowrimo novel was Nov. 11. I had about 9,000 words. So I’m not going to write 41,000 more between now and a week from Monday.Continue reading “In defense of quitting”
