Why is it our motivation sometimes wavers this time of year? Do you feel like the Little Engine That Could losing steam up a big pull? Maybe it’s the close of school and the beginning of summer. For some of us, that means a change in routine with kids home. Or maybe it’s that we’re five months into the year, and the…

Blogs, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook… My guess is you are familiar with and use at least one of these formats of social media among,perhaps, others. I also have a hunch if you are a writer you are at least somewhat savvy about the concept of building a platform. According to Christina Katz, author of…

The other day, in the midst of spring, or so the calendar indicates, our mountains received a layer of snow. I’m itching to pull my bike off its hook from the garage, lower my kayak from where it's hoisted for the winter, and slide on my hiking shoes for a walk by the lake, watching my dog lope without either of us getting chilled. But I know better. Spring is slow to emerge, if at all, at our elevation. Sometimes we skip the season altogether and just launch into summer.…

I have so many lofty goals with writing. Do it. I want to write a book, but don't know how to start. Do it. I want to be published... or start a blog... or keep a journal... or write touching letters. Do it.

I wish I could figure out how to embed a video in this post. I keep trying, but I just can't seem to make it…

The spring sun is starting to warm my alpine home to reasonable temperatures. After a winter of elliptical workouts, I am finally able to take my workouts outdoors. Yesterday, my dog danced at my feet as I put on my shoes and mittens. He knows the routine and is anxious to be out again too. As we headed down the hill, my mind was churning on all the writing I needed to do before I left for spring break vacation. I knew my internet availability would be limited, and I had a couple of posts…

Soon after my son left for college, I quit my career and decided to take the writing plunge. (I know, I know, this isn't logical, but that was all covered in an earlier post...) Like the infamous Three Bears, we live in a house that is just the right size for our family, everyone has their own room. It adequately meets our needs, but there was no extra space to create a writing office.

Well, unless I considered the college sons' room. Which I did. I waited a couple years of course,…

Last summer while visiting my mom, we took a drive out to the country to stroll a farmer’s market. I drove her car and at one of the intersections she suddenly piped up, “Be careful here. It’s easy to get ham-boned.”

I looked at her a bit confused. “Do you mean t-boned?”

She started laughing. “Yes,…

I flew to Pittsburgh this past week to help my mother move into an independent living facility. It was a lot of work and by the evening I was pooped and a little emotionally stressed. So, for a couple of nights I escaped to a local restaurant, saddled up to the bar, and ordered myself a much-appreciated drink. 

At the Bar

I did what writers do best: I sat on a stool, sipped a drink and watched the people around me. There was the cute young couple across…

One of my favorite movie scenes is from the film City Slickers. In the scene Jack Palance’s character, Curly, a grizzled cowboy with a cigarette dangling from his lips, is riding on horseback alongside Billy Crystal’s city character, Mitch, who is in the throes of a midlife…

The town I live in is small--in population and actual size. A grocery outing is like the TV show Cheers: everyone knows your name, like it or not.  One night each year during the holiday season, the town shuts down its main streets, sets up barricades manned by police cars with cheerfully flashing lights, and…

I've been ruminating.

The dictionary defines ruminating as "to go over in the mind repeatedly and often casually or slowly", or the more gross and picturesque, "to regurgitate partially digested food and chew again". Uh huh, like a cow. Moo. And that's exactly what I have spent the last two months…

Back in the 70s, when I was very young (of course), I used watch a game show called, Name That Tune. The theme of the show involved contestants bidding against each other to name a title of a song in as few notes as possible.

"I can name that tune in eight notes,Tom," one contestant would…

There is a great scene in the movie Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade where Indiana, in an exhausting and perilous journey to find the holy grail, is at last confronted with the final obstacle to his goal. The entrance to the cave holding the coveted cup is within sight. The problem? In order to get to it, Indiana must somehow cross a seemingly bottomless chasm. But the distance is too great to jump, and Indiana can't see a way to the other side. As far as his vision can tell, if…

As you work through your writing projects, do you find yourself interjecting your own experiences or emotions into your story and characters? I'm guessing it's unavoidable at some level, no matter your genre.

My WIP, which is currently under reconstruction, is about a woman, Piper Flemming, in her 40s, whose marriage has…

For anyone currently working on a revision or for those of you who, after November, will be launching into the revision phase, you don't want to miss reading this post.

No, not the kind you plug in...

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post called, "My Blog, My Tribe".  In that post, I explored a writer's use of social media outlets-- Twitter, blogs, Facebook-- and skimmed over a subject I…

What?  Another acronym that sounds like a foreign language?

During the pre-NaNo hoopla, I decided I was going to pull from the energy and excitement over NaNo and set up my own goals for my MS revision. Lo n' behold, I read a post on the cookie-lovin' …

Last week I shared a little bit about the value of collecting "clips"-- copies of articles-- to add to your writing resume. Hopefully you felt inspired and decided, sure you'd like to write an article or two. After all, you have good writing skills, you can whip out 1000 words fairly easily. Let's do this! But maybe you pulled up Word, stared at the blank screen and searched your brain for ideas and...nothing. Panic set in.…

Seed: The Exchange for Writer Sustainability