I need to write from my heart today. Last spring, cancer took my grandmother. Last fall, it took my other grandmother. Last night, it took my friend. I wrote this as I lay awake in the darkness early this morning. I didn’t write it to win sympathy from anyone. I wrote it as a promise…
Back when I was an elementary school teacher, I created a mnemonic device to help my students remember to include all the story elements in their retells: Cows See Pretty Sunflowers. I didn’t say it was a great mnemonic. But it worked. Cows = Characters See = Setting Pretty = Problem Sunflowers = Solution They drew…
Meet Meeker. Meeker is an eleven-week-old Siamese mix kitten. He joined our family last Saturday. We’d been talking about getting a kitten for a couple of months, since one of our adult cats died. The remaining adult cat, Lily, seemed happy to be by herself, but it didn’t take long for the kitten talk to…
Nothing beats the feeling of typing The End following the last scene of your manuscript. You’ve spent weeks to months to years laboring over sentence construction, timeline details, and character development, among many other things. Now is the time to celebrate. Because soon, it will be time to edit. If you’re groaning, stop it. This…
Welcome to the fourth and final installment of the Drake and the Fliers prequel/serial. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading the posts as much as I enjoyed writing them. If you missed the earlier posts and want to start at the beginning, click here. Before the Flight – Part 4 Drake held Kelsey’s fevered hand as…
Welcome to Part 3 of the prequel/serial to Drake and the Fliers. If you missed Parts 1 and 2 and want to start at the beginning, click here. Before the Flight – Part 3 “Why aren’t we sick?” Drake asked. Kelsey sighed and leaned against the window of the Denver hospital, focusing on the ceiling. “I…
Stephen King says a lot of quote-worthy things. Many of them are true. The one I think is the most true is this: Writers must be readers. It’s how we learn from the masters. I know this is true because I’ve been a voracious reader since I could first decode words. My absolute favorite book…
This is a Thanksgiving post. There are others like it but this one is mine. Several readers of this blog live in other countries – Canada, England, and Australia, to name a few. I obviously don’t know what American Thanksgiving looks like from your perspective, but from here it looks something like one of…
Welcome back to the prequel/serial of Drake’s story before and during the virus. Click here if you missed Part 1 and want to start at the beginning. Before the Flight – Part 2 Drake’s mother set the parking brake and shut off the car, eyeing the dark and empty house. Her eyes glistened. Drake stared…
Originally posted on angelomarcos:
My latest ‘Creative Minds’ interview is with writer and blogger Allison Maruska. You can read it here!
Allison Maruska 