Writing about place, people, and whatever parts of the universe I'm lucky to see.
Work went from zero to one hundred more abruptly that it ever has. Two weeks ago, that last easy week of summer, I wrote an hour each day, completed consistent thirty-minute workouts, weekly video-calls with family and friends, eight hours of sleep each night. Two weeks, and I feel already wrung dry. Although they're all... Continue Reading →
This week's post is part of the monthly Author Toolbox Blog Hop where you will find a community of writers sharing tips and tools for the craft and business of writing. Do check them out! It wasn't since the impromptu graduation ceremony we held in March that I have had such a busy week. Staff... Continue Reading →
I'm starting to think that anything can be a story. My husband tells me about his job search after college. What a story! I am eating chicken surrounded by forty of the loudest teenagers on the planet. Story! It keeps raining and the pumpkin plant keeps blooming all the same. Story. Quarantined students are roaming... Continue Reading →
I get wrapped up in my own head sometimes. I twist around my thoughts. Despairing at the world or spinning in moot worries, few things can pull me out of looping thoughts effectively as writing. Writing helps us process our emotions. It is a way to get outside oneself, as it is paradoxically too the... Continue Reading →
In the rush through of this so different summer, at last the rain has broken. Three days of sun erupted miraculously into the forecast, and in a fevered burst we made our travel plans. Covid-19 seems to be controlled in Norway. The country mostly reopened in mid-May, and new case numbers have held low at... Continue Reading →
I've slowed down. I'm typing a few lines this morning, with vague direction. I've written little this last week--a few brief edits to a short story, an idle look at upcoming submissions windows. What do I have today that I can blog about? Perhaps only that very hitch in my routine: the slowing down, the... Continue Reading →
This week's post is part of the monthly Author Toolbox Blog Hop. Check out others' great posts about the craft and business of writing! I first encountered Haruki Murakami through his short story collection The Elephant Vanishes. These stories of middle-class life in Japan were bizarre, esoteric, often difficult to get my mind around. The... Continue Reading →
A week ago, just as I was finalizing last week's blog post, I received an email letting me know that a magazine wanted to publish a short piece I had submitted to them. Oh? They do? Oh! Oh my. My that feels good. It has taken me some time, some grief, and lots of effort.... Continue Reading →
In the huge range of texts we write, distinguishing among them helps us know what we are writing, helps readers know what to expect, and helps us connect our pieces to readers who will enjoy them. Today we'll discuss three central ways texts are distinguished from one another: mode, genre, and form. These tools help... Continue Reading →
Good things take time. Good writing is no exception. I tell my students that the best draft is almost always the next one, with more distance, more perspective, the images distill into something sharper. We're able to write closer to what we mean, or then, what we mean to say becomes clearer to ourselves. In... Continue Reading →
Jimmy Kindree 