Your Writing Matters: How a Book Saved My Life

Autumn always makes me thankful. Maybe it’s because of Thanksgiving. Maybe it’s because of a memory of a remote cabin in the middle exploding fall colors. Maybe it’s the  reminder that I have more to be thankful for than most. I’m thankful for books. Because one saved my life. When people ask me why I began writing,…

Read More

What Writers Can Learn from Songs

I was chatting with an old friend via email this morning, and we were discussing song lyrics. It’s a favorite topic of mine, because I’ve always wanted to write them. After all, they’re just a hugely abbreviated form of writing. Mini Flash Fiction, with poetry thrown in. Extreme write tight! If they can do this…

Read More

Use Excel to Track Your Novel

Learning how you write a book is like finding your way in a pitch black room full of furniture. You can learn by barking your shins, but there are less painful ways. Hopefully, this post will help. I’m an organized person, so it would make me crazy trying to locate details in my WIP. Which…

Read More

3 Writing Lessons Learned from a Robotic Vacuum

Years ago, I had back surgery. After I healed, I went back to Domestic Goddess duties, but found I couldn’t vacuum anymore. Something about the pushing and pulling killed my back. So I informed Alpha Dog (did I mention he’s also Texan?) that this duty would have to fall to him. He didn’t disagree, but…

Read More

The Dreaded Dialogue Tag

Okay, I admit it. I’m prejudiced against dialogue tags. Yes, I know they say, ‘He said/she said’ are invisible to the reader. They’re not to me. Even if you don’t share my pet peeve, why settle for something so boring? You write a sparkling line of dialogue, and slap ‘he said’ on the end? Why…

Read More