Okay! I admit it.  I'm a nonfiction writer.  I've had 5 nonfiction books published but within all of them are stories.  Now story has taken hold of me and I am on a mystical journey towards fiction.  I am workshopping my new (in development) novel and am working with an editor on getting a chapter by chapter analysis. I see no reason that a nonfiction writer cannot write compelling fiction.

My Goddess, I never realized the challenges of fiction writing or creating a novel.  I have…

Q: How do you know whether you're truly a writer?

A: If the impulse to write is so strong that you think you might perish if something were to ever come between you and the page, then chances are good that you're a writer.

Q: How do you know whether you're a careful reader?

A: If you read others' musings and therein find passages whose beauty, rhythm, and humor call out to you so strongly that you find at…

Where is FATE taking you?

As I re-write a few words in "Altered Light"…

Last fall, I completed a 50,000-word young adult novel called Uptown Summer. I revised the manuscript to the best of my ability, rewrote, plucked and pruned extraneous passages, and then revised once again. After three drafts, I felt as if there was nothing more I could do. I contacted a few interested parties at this point and began sending out the manuscript for feedback. Weeks passed, and then months, and still I hadn't heard anything. Finally, I asked my readers the…

Go on - take at your Pinterest board, at the magnets on your fridge, at the coffee mugs replicating like rabbits in your cupboard: I reckon there is at least one version of Carpe Diem in the lot. Scattered about in forms tangible and virtual are quotes admonishing you to live life to fullest, every day, for you never know when it may be your last. Me? I've got Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever ~ Mahatma Gandhi tacked…

I've got the Giggles over Mr. Sexy Runner

At least three times a week, I work out at Jazzercise. My route there takes me along the west side of the small lake in my neighborhood. Eventually, the road connects with a main street, then another. I reach my destination in fifteen-ish minutes.

So what does this have to do with "giggles" and "Mr. Sexy Runner, Vicki?"

Most days, I pass Mr. Sexy Runner. LOL

One…

I have been busy retracing the many steps of the monuments of Paris these past few days, so not much time for reading, more like soaking up the culture and inspiration of being in a magical city.

I did manage to finish Barbara Kingsolver's excellent 'Prodigal Summer' which I will write more of soon in my books blog and following on from this glorious visit to Paris, I am now immersed in Hemingway's 'A Moveable Feast' keeping me in…

Two days ago my friend who is a Marine, messaged me and we spent two hours talking.

Since he joined the Marines I usually get a quick one line message and if I’m lucky a second one line message, maybe every four to six weeks.

I miss the long conversations we used to have, but fully understand he’s busy these days. Since we’re both writers, we have a…

Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can; all of them make me laugh ~ W. H. Auden  

A few days ago I went to visit my ex-mother-in-law,…

One would think that by the time we reach our fifties, our abilities and hidden talents would have already…

The attraction we have to other people is often felt immediately upon meeting them.  Think about the people you know or have met in your life who seem to naturally draw people to them with an unexplainable magnetism.  These people give off a vibe that makes us feel, comfortable, happy, and energized in…

Many of us, myself included, have suffered through difficult childhoods.  It is with greater clarity that we are able to evaluate our past from an adult perspective.  Though we may be cognizant of the root of our pain, our childhood experiences were tightly woven into the cloth that made us who we are today; they are imbedded in the…

The desire to love is not itself love.  Love is as love does. ~ M. Scott Peck, M.D.

Love is often characterized by the overwhelming feeling that is commonly associated with it.   We have all experienced the giddy feeling of…

Quiet Faith

 “Coincidences are spiritual puns”~ G.K. Chesterton

We’ve all heard the common mantra, “There are no coincidences.”  Whether believer or skeptic, we have all experienced these fascinating and seemingly random occurrences in…

As I stated in my January 16th article, “Is There Life After Life,” for many years I’ve had a curiosity about the infinitive properties of life. This curiosity has lead me to fill my personal library with books written by noted, and in some cases scientifically tested, psychic mediums such as John Edward, James Van Praagh, Sylvia Browne, and…

Excerpted from the memoir Fine…ly, “I believe that there are divine reasons for the pregnant pauses in our lives; the times when our life seems to come to a screeching halt and we are rendered powerless over it. Those are the times we should pay especially close attention, for those junctures may be the most profound times in our…