Being Human

Explore how to create the relationships that best work for you

Create the relationships that work for you

Twenty years ago, my health declined. Skip ahead, and ten years later symptoms had worsened into a disability. I don’t talk about this much because I live my life dealing with my symptoms every day—that’s enough. However, now it seems appropriate to talk a bit about some symptoms that have changed my relationship with words. Pain is a constant companion. It walks with me and sleeps with me. It never leaves me be. You’d think […]

Writing

How do we find time to write?

Sunflowers

Like so many things we enjoy doing, writing can fade into the background of our busy lives. How do we find time to write? In this post, I’ll share what’s helped me. An important first step is to ask ourselves why we write—taking our time to answer; going deep. A key second step is to take stock of what is making our lives so busy. As the things we collect over time can become clutter in our homes, making […]

Writing

Why isn’t my finished book self-published yet?

Barn

Why isn’t my finished book self-published yet? Somehow that needed repeating. First of all, I may not self-publish. I’m still open to continuing to query for a few months longer (especially since I’ve improved my novel since sending out some of those early query letters). For some, once finishing a book, the move to self-publishing is a fast process. For me? Well… I finished the first draft of REASONS a long time ago—a very long […]

Mindful Living

The wonderful benefits of 42 days in isolation:

Iceland solitary

Before I tell you about my experience being sick, my heart aches for every person affected by this pandemic. For every life lost, I feel profound sorrow. For every person who is sick or recovering or long-hauling this thing… well… I hope you get better. I hope you come out the other side of this thing without lingering issues. I hope you are well now, as you read this. Most importantly, to all who have […]

Books I've Read

The love of books and the joy they bring.

Angel and wheel

I’m an avid reader. I read both non-fiction and fiction, but it’s fiction that interests me for this post. When I think about the fact that so many of us love to read stories that other people have made up… the idea sounds extraordinary. Of course, yes, we’ve been reading make-believe stories for thousands of years (go ahead, look it up). Nevertheless, I do wonder about why we do. I find the idea intriguing. Why […]

Writing

The value of creating relationships with critique partners.

Summer trail walk

Creating a critique partnership is worthwhile. Here’s my experience: When I finished the first draft of my novel, REASONS, I was fortunate to have a retired English teacher as my neighbor. He graciously and patiently gave me his time and his wisdom… and helped me to improve my writing. I remember the feelings of vulnerability and nervousness that came with having someone read my novel for the very first time. But my excitement and desire […]

Writing

How to decide to query for agent representation or take the self-publishing route.

Volkswagen bug and tree

I am in the process of querying my manuscript. So, for me, the question is not about whether or not I query. It’s a question about how long I query? I’ve only just begun to look for agent representation and I’m patient. But querying takes a lot more than patience. It takes time to prepare a great query letter, diligence to search for an appropriate agent, focus to research submission guidelines, and care to keep […]

Being Human

Enjoy the perks of knowing authentic people.

Boardwalk trail

An authentic person shows you exactly who she or he is. No pretending. No performing. No exaggerating. No bull. Well, that’s my experience anyway. Authentic people are: What you see is what you get (a phrase some relate to wysiwyg, pronounced: whizzywig. An acronym with an authentic story all of its own. But I’ll leave that extra bit of research to you). I’m using the phrase in the way Flip Wilson’s Geraldine used it: a […]

Writing

And now a few words about my writing process.

Summer trail

In short, when I wrote REASONS, I didn’t have a writing process. It’s true, I didn’t. But my lack of a plan didn’t stop me from writing a novel. I wrote every single day… adding words, sentences, paragraphs and chapters bit by bit until I had a complete first draft. That first draft wasn’t pretty, but it was a finished story. My lack of a laid out plan hadn’t made the act of writing any […]

Mindful Living

When I learned about living mindfully… part two

Zen

Part two of two: It’s time to pay attention. When I learned about living mindfully, my life changed profoundly. After my first time sitting formally in meditation, almost immediately I noticed a sense of calm ‘rightness’ within me… a soundness deep inside that I’d not felt for a very long time. This sense of stability and wholeness, a quality that seemed both familiar and revolutionary, may have been a wee spark at the time, but […]