Every time I start a new novel, I find myself researching a variety of items, especially with the fantasy novels I’ve been writing lately. I have selected the 1700s as my template years for technology, clothing, architecture, and transportation. Picture credit: Okamatsu Fujikawa from on Unsplash Since drafting my newest fantasy novel, I’ve found the…
I mentioned in a previous post that my dogs have been keeping me rather busy. I thought I would post about that now because when I learn something new that brings about positive results in my life and those I care about I want to share it with others. I have two Labradors, great girls…
Sorry, she doesn’t wink on command. First off, she’s not really yellow. She is a yellow lab who is real-butter pale. But she does wink, and it appears to be deliberate. Reasons she winks Cagney is the reincarnation of my dad who was a winker. Sure, I have proof. When she is very happy, she…
Opportunity: learn from failure However, you can also learn to help yourself and learn you are capable of improving. Let yourself fail; let others fail. Then give yourself and others the opportunity to learn from that failure. I read this great article about how people learn to be helpless through experience and environment. The piece…
Questions and answers. I’ve already written about the decision to stop working on my contemporary novel to work on what I thought was just a fantasy short story. I think a followup is due as just this week I finished the 99K draft of the fantasy novel. It took less than two months to write,…
Stand on stone words Just a few weeks ago, I decided I needed to shift to another writing project. My contemporary novel, Joanie and Friends, had hit a wall. I was writing, but it was failing to feel original and authentic, like I was just dragging the words out of my characters. So I remembered…
Standing Stone I’ve been working on a novel, Joanie and Friends, that is based on three retired women who have their lives pretty much set the way they wanted them. They’ve worked hard and married good men. Life is running along well. And then it doesn’t. All three women share in the telling of how…
Empty: a metaphor It’s a one-word-in-front-of-the-other night. I don’t see the light at the end, but I know if I just keep typing, words will keep dropping down in front of me. This always works, yet I have not been applying this highly reliable rule in my life. Sit down, turn on computer, double click…
