Where Do You See the Best of Humanity?

I decided to pull a few prompts from these cards, and should inspiration strike, write a post on one. Obviously one sparked an idea, or this would be the shortest post ever. But before I get to the topic at hand, allow me to share the three possibilities. Judging from the title, you can probably…

Review: Unashamed–Musings of a Fat, Black Muslim

I had the privilege to read early a book as compelling and provocative as its title suggests. Unashamed: Musings of a Fat, Black Muslim is the memoir of model and fashion icon Leah Vernon. It’s a gritty, raw telling of her life’s journey, starting as one of five children to a single mother in Detroit…

Belts, Books, and Betas, Oh My!

A critique partner messaged me a couple of days ago. Great questions! Lots of things are happening, and I thought a quick update post was in order so those thinking I went *poof* is limited. And to start things off… 1. Belts What do belts have to do with authoring, you may ask. The answer is…

#BannedBooksWeek: Captain Underpants!

Originally posted on Eclectic Alli:
Today’s guest post comes from Allison Maruska (another fairly regular visitor over the years on this blog (particularly during some of my fiction projects!) Allison is an author of mystery, suspense, and YA novels. On her blog, she publishes short stories, bonus material to accompany her books, posts about writing…

Three Writing Cheats To Avoid (Maybe)

Originally posted on Allison Maruska:
I recently read this post on A Writer’s Path about writing pet peeves. In it, the author describes three practices that are irritating, namely cliches, Mary Sues, and sloppy grammar/spelling. Scroll to the comments and you’ll see a handful of others provided by other readers/writers (including yours truly). After I…

Did Your Dream Job Come True?

Time for another entry prompted by these journal cards. As usual, I picked three randomly and one of those gets the full blog treatment. I considered doing the one about celebrity culture, since today’s news was partly dominated by Bieber picking a fight with Tom Cruise. Or trying to. And the comedic potential there could…

The Adventures of Tongue Shark

So this happened last night. The 14yo brainstormed ideas while the 11yo drew them. Now, because my children are my children, a silly idea like that quickly grows into something possibly ridiculous but definitely funny. And because their mother is me, the ridiculous, funny thing gets blog treatment. Ergo, I bring you… The Adventures of…

When Are We Officially Grown Up?

I pulled three cards from my prompt deck, and all three are pretty good, I think. Interestingly, I took a workshop that required a reflection paper on the one about adding value to relationships (one point: humor is necessary for genuine connection). But since I had to write an actual paper on the topic, I…