In life things change, right? A great tool to have in our life skills toolkit is the knowledge that difficulties pass. Struggles and challenges are overcome. Wisdom passed down from both our parents and t-shirts to ‘hang in there’ and ‘not give up’ turned out to be clinically good advice. Accepting that you have what it takes to get through times that stretch you to the max will make taking the next step easier. And what other step…
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Everything is pointing to it. Spring is awakening here in Pennsylvania everywhere you look. My winter coat is hung on it’s wooden peg, hanging out at home nowadays. This weekend Christian liturgies around the world are focused on it. The promise of new life. I’ve been feeling this as a writer. If you’re a writer you know that there are many seasons in the writing process and in the vocation of a…
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Here, in Pennsylvania, spring is in the air! My husband, Paul, and I went to a local garden, and buds were starting to bloom on all the trees, with early blooms peeking out of the ground. The grass was lush from recent rains, rather than scorched from the heat of summer. How I’ve missed hearing the birds in our more urban apartment as compared to when we lived in a restored barn. But…
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Wow. Over a year has gone by since I’ve posted. Yes, my novel still exists. Did I finish editing? No I’d rather not say. I will say that since I last wrote a blog entry in 2016, life has been running on busy. During this last year I met a major professional benchmark that I had been working towards. As a result things are starting to settle down job-wise. I fit in editing whenever…
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Here’s a picture worth 170,000 words! My, oh my. 170,000 memories. 170,000 roadblocks and detours. 170,000 ways to find out how strong you are. When I first thought that maybe I should be a writer I was in my early 30’s and had finished 2 Master’s degrees. My husband and I were only married a couple of years and we were at a Barnes & Noble dreaming as newlyweds do,…
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In some ways, I never feel my novel edits are done. I also never felt quite ready to start querying. But if you’re a ‘never feel ready’ type of person, you know that at some point, ready or not, you have to jump in the deep end. I ‘jumped in’ with writing a query letter. After working on the novel for so long, writing a query letter was kind of a treat. It became a letter edited to be…
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Let me explain. For posterity, I thought I’d share what the final editing and getting ready to query stage has been like for me. If you’re a new writer, you may want to grab a martini. If you’re an experienced author, you will be laughing at me, like a frat boy with a new recruit during hazing. Sorry that it’s not a prettier picture this close to the holidays. First, I’m a huge…
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This is the tagline for Nanowrimo’s 30 day challenge. When I first read it, feeling beat up from the process of working on completing my first novel, the slogan inspired me. “Ah, yes, the world! I forgot about the world. Get back out there, weary writer – blizzard or no blizzard. Frostbite or hypothermia – no retreating! The world needs you to see this through.” Yep. Pass the cookies and…
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As a first time novelist, it is something else to look back and see how far I’ve journeyed with this story. From the initial idea, to mapping out the story for a couple of months to the first draft which took months of writing – both following the outline and letting the story unfold as I wrote – it’s been quite a trip. A funny thing happens while your brain is occupied with getting the…
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