“Where do you get your ideas?” The questioner lowers his raised hand, glad that I called on him. His eager eyes are glowing. I say something about song lyrics and scraps of conversation that have sparked story ideas for me. But, just once, I’d like to answer: Well, there’s this special access pass to the Great Ideas Warehouse that they give you when you graduate with…
Like a wise traveler, I plot my course for days before I begin. I make careful plans, with a clear head, and no rushing. I then board my ship, check my charts, and run a finger along the map’s inked path from my port to the island I hope and pray to reach. It will test the limits of my endurance. The first days go smoothly.…
On the back of my laptop is an orange oblong sticker that reads, Beauty will save the world. It’s no coincidence that my favorite fairy tale of all time is Beauty and the Beast. A young girl enters a dark stone castle in order to save her father, and through the power of her friendship, shreds the spell that enshrouded the selfish heart of a prince…
I was gasping through the Seattle Marathon when I saw a friendship that drew tears from my eyes. *Clears throat* To be perfectly honest, I didn’t run the full course. My husband and I joined my cousin, the real marathon-runner, at Mile 20 to encourage her. I saw a fifty-year-old man running barefoot, women chatting to keep their minds off the pain, a father and little…
What do you get when you make two woman with very different stories collide in the middle of an awful night? This is when writing gets really fun! Marni and I met after I'd just launched Moonlight and Oranges,when she was on the verge of launching her first novel Memoirs Aren't Fairytales, a harrowing story of a young woman's struggle with heroin addiction. We hit it…
“I have so much information, I don’t know where to start.” This is a great problem to have, if you’ve riffled through your Junk Drawer (Part 1) and Pinned (Part 2) the interesting bits. If you’re just joining us, this is my series on turning an idea into a creative reality You need a plan. Ahem, before anyone of you anti-planners walk away, hear me out:…
“Comparison is the thief of joy.” -Theodore Roosevelt Can you imagine having a child you love, and constantly comparing that little, fragile soul to the frightening, and competitive world around her? I’m not a mother, but seriously, that sounds heartlessly cruel. And yet, this is what comparison does to my heart (the child) every time I rank myself against someone else. I have friends who are…
I’m happy to report that my nervous twitch has subsided and I’m safely returned from beautiful British Columbia (and yes, I had a great time at my Canadian conference). This has been a week of really focusing what I have to say in my writing, and looking at my stories with the eyes of someone intent to slash out needless words. Dangerous work, when you think…
Multiple choice tests are as fun as you make them. I’ve designed my own, which tells the story of how I came, saw, and conquered the Surrey International Writer’s Conference. You may have witnessed the post on my eye twitch for how anxious I was to tread inside the intimidating world of agents, widely published authors, dinner and cocktail events. I promised to tell you how…
Examination of Symptoms: “When I touch the skin under my eye, I can feel the muscles twitch,” I tell my friend at our weekly coffee shop date. I wrap my hand around my salted caramel latte as if it can hug me back. I need hugs like oxygen today. Earlier that morning I tell my husband, “This is a nervous twitch, not a caffeine twitch.” The…