writing

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POINT OF VIEW: The Best Oreos

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oreos - deposit photos

Every writer has their vice. For some it’s the siren call of alcohol – a nightcap before bed to help drown out the muse’s voice, or a cold beer in the afternoon after a hard couple hard hours wrestling with plot bunnies and squirrels. Hey, anyone know the difference? I could never figure it out. For others, it’s the terrible lure of social media, a great place to avoid, you know, actually having to write something, while feeling good about yourself for posting all those fantastic writing memes to your Instagram account, Twitter feed, or Facebook page. For me, it’s … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: After the Plague

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sunrise - after the plague

My friend A. Catherine Noon asks: What do you want to change when we come out of lockdown, and what do you want to leave behind? What do you want to make (assuming you had energy and no stress)? (Make includes write.) Wow, that’s a big question. Some of my answers come easily – like the first things I want to do when this is all over: I want to hug my friends tightly. I want to go to Starbucks and get a trenta mint java-chip frappucino and drink it until my brain hurts. I want to have dinner out … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Getting Up With the Roosters

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alarm clock - Deposit Photos

I’m trying something new. Anyone who knows me knows I am insanely busy, all the time. Mark and I run about twelve websites, plus I’m both a writer AND a human who occasionally needs to eat and sleep. In the past, I would write when Mark went to the gym, usually between 12 and 1:30 PM. But now, with the Covid19 crisis, there’s no more gym. And although Mark is awesome at staying out of the way during writing time, more and more I’m edging into writing time with other work, losing 15-30 minutes (sometimes more) when I could be … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Taking My Time

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stopwatches - pixabay

I’m writing again, and it feels really good. 🙂 But I’m doing it a little differently this time. I’m working over my first three chapters multiple times before moving ahead, making sure that I have three things settled in my head: The thrust of the plot The interdynamics of the characters The major and minor details of the world I always do this to some extent, but have never done so in such a thoughtful and deliberate way. From Pantsing to Plotting When I first started out as a writer, I was a total pantser. My overflowing “drawer” of what … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Diving Deeper

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Diving Deeper - Deposit Photos

I’ve always said when you stop growing as a writer, your writing dies. We’re like sharks, swimming and swimming to keep that oxygen pumping through our blood. A few years ago, when I first started writing seriously and sold my first story, I was on top of the world. I felt like I had finally arrived, and knew how to do this shit. People were actually taking me seriously as a writer. That didn’t last long. I got a rejection, and another, and another. I sold a few more stories too, but then my reviews started coming in, and I … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Writing in the Time of Covid19

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writing - Yay Images

Another week in lockdown. Although California didn’t order a statewide “shelter in place” order until late last week and Sacramento’s was only a few days before, Mark have been staying home (with only trips out for walks and one trip to the Supermarket parking lot) for eleven days now. We are starting to settle into the new routine, which on the face of it isn’t really all that different than before: Work, eat, work, eat and play card games, work, eat, work and watch TV, sleep. Oh, and the occasional shave and shower in there somewhere. *grin* And yet, this … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Into the Unknown

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rocket - pixabay

We’re on the cusp of great change. You can feel it in your bones. The old world order is rattling around like a bunch of dry bones in a box, and the world itself is splitting at the seams. In my own little writing world, things are being remade anew too. And in both, no one knows what form the new thing that’s coming will take. Writing at its heart is an act of both destruction and creation. As writers, we take something we know – the world around us – and break it down into its component parts, rending … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: A New Direction

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new direction arrow - Yay Images

So it’s a new week, and a new direction. Regular readers of this column (thanks Mom and the other two of you!) will know I’ve been struggling with my direction as an author since I finished my two trilogies, Liminal Sky and The Oberon Cycle. I have a completed manuscript for Dropnauts – book four in the Liminal Sky series, but after failing to snag a mentor in Pitch Wars, finding out another potential mentor just didn’t get my work, and getting only one agent response for three Twitter pitch events (who later rejected the work), I’ve been a bit … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Changing the Story

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Autumn Lands

I’m struggling this year. Struggling in my work life and as an author. So many things have gone pear-shaped these last few months, and it’s all left me in a strange no-man’s land, not quite sure where to go next. In my writing life, I finished two trilogies, and wrote a new novel with the intent of sending it out to snag an agent. I wrapped it up five months ago, and three agents, two denials and a failed attempt at Pitch Wars later, I still have no clear path. It’s left me questioning… well, just about everything. So I … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: When the Future is Gray

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May you live in interesting times. It’s an old, oft-quoted curse (though probably NOT of Chnese origin) that turns something good on its head and makes it something decidedly bad. And one that seems particularly apt for our own time. We’re hurtling headlong into the future with many of the things sci fi always promised us – computers that fit into our pockets, cars that drive themselves, and a global connection through social media that surpasses anything Asimov or Clarke ever imagined. Tthough I’m still waiting for my flying car, dammit! And yet instead of a futuristic utopia filled with … Read more