I am a creative person. I’m pretty sure anyone who has read much of my blog realizes that. I’ve been thinking lately about that creative drive and how it affects my entire life. I see my life in creative turns…whether it’s cooking a meal or caring for my garden, writing, painting, crochet…it is a huge
I am a perfectionist (…somewhat recovered). I hate making mistakes. Even more so when those mistakes are visible to the greater public. This is a reason why my first novel took me so many years to finish, and why every crochet project gets ripped back at least once. In my day job I often have
There is something I love about the freedom in a short story. There is no obligation to begin at the beginning, in fact it is sometimes more fun to jump in somewhere in the middle. Short stories ask more skill of us authors, in some ways, than a full length novel. There is the challenge
I read a lot of books that involve loyalty to a leader or to a country. It’s a prevalent thing in most fantasy and sci fi stories. The deep devotion to a beloved king or queen, the drive to protect the homeland, is a big part of the human experience. In the real world, that
As an author, you have to get used to rejection. I’ve gotten enough “no thank you” emails and letters to have adapted pretty well to them. And despite the fact that I approach every single submission with heart-palpitations and great trepidation (and no small amount of imposter syndrome), I’ve come to realize something about that
I love words. I love long words, short words, weird words. I love unusual words and common words. I love combinations of words that absolutely, perfectly describe something or someone. I love twisting words around until they come out just right. I’ve been drawn to words and how we use them to communicate since I
This has been a tough week, and I’m not even really sure why. But the good news is that we have made it to the Friday and there is only about 6.5 work hours between me and the weekend. I’ll admit to a certain amount of anxiousness about this whole “returning to normal” thing that
At the risk of alienating some of you, I’m going to talk about being a woman of a certain age, with all the attendant drama and bodily functions. If this might bother you, please just keep going about your day and ignore me. I find it interesting that here, on the approach to fifty-three and
Mother’s Day is ostensibly meant as a day that we recognize and honor our maternal figures, the people who gave birth to us, the people who wiped our butts and fed us, the people who cared for us when we were ill or injured. But motherhood is about a lot more than that, and it
In my day job, I write technical documentation. Well, that’s what the job description says anyway. A good chunk of what I actually do is editing, formatting and coding, and organizing information. To be fair, I get to do a decent amount of actual writing, especially when we’re getting ready to release new features. I
