I stumbled across this image in my phone. Apparently I decided to save it at some point. I think past me knew that present me would need to read this right about now. I recently started querying agents with my completed middle-grade novel, hoping to one day join the ranks of published hybrid authors. I’ve…
When we fiction writers put pen to paper or finger to keyboard or, I dunno, bloody toothpick to cocktail napkin, we are likely writing a story that 1. We enjoy in our heads enough to write it into reality, and 2. We hope others will enjoy as well. Lifelong readers have come to expect certain…
Before I share my response to Chari’s flash fiction challenge over at Carrot Ranch, I need to share something else. Anthony Bourdain is in the news this morning. A man who was so full of life couldn’t live with the shroud of depression any longer and took his own life. And while I wasn’t a…
With all the A-Z challenge posts in April, I’ve been feeling the short story itch. And when I got an idea for a response to Chuck Wendig’s prompt this week, I decided to scratch it. Our task: write about real estate. Don’t worry. It’s not as boring as it sounds. At least I hope not.…
In April, I was a judge for two writing contests – Dan Alatorre’s Word Weaver contest and Ryan Lanz’s short story contest. I was honored to be asked to fill the role once, let alone twice. And while I enjoyed judging great stories, I also learned a few things about how to make short stories…
Yesterday, as I sat down to write some brilliant words in my WIP, I did what any writer does before starting. I got onto Facebook. For research. I swear. Okay, maybe not, but I did see a couple of posts that inspired the words you’re reading now, so it wasn’t all a waste of time.…
Yesterday, I read a well-known book with my first-grade group called Is Your Mama a Llama? It’s about a llama looking for others like him, who would have a llama for a mama, told in a fun and predictable rhyming pattern. “Is your mama a llama?” I asked my fried Dave. “No she is not,” is…
