The old year goes out with fanfare. Restaurants create elaborate menus for New Year’s Eve dinners. Shopkeepers dress their windows using party clothes to entice customers to buy their sparkly offerings. Friends and family ask, “What are you doing for New Year’s Eve?” In New York City, crowds stand for hours in Times Square waiting …
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Mark the Days
I spend most New Year’s days reflecting on the past year and all the highs and lows. I begin to plan for the year ahead, marking significant days–birthdays, anniversaries, upcoming events, work commitments holidays, travel–the knowns. I also plan for adventure, but to be honest, with 2020 and 2021 and some of 2022 being so …
It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like…
Christmas. Yes, it’s now just over five weeks away. I haven’t bought many of my presents yet, so there’s a job for December. I did buy an emergency ‘turducken’ (one of those combo turkey / duck / chicken roasts) this week, just in case we need to have Christmas here again this year. (Last year, …
Devotional: Plots You Need to Know
One Christmas, I received a book many writers may have in their library of writing resources. Between the covers of Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories, Christopher Booker pours a wealth of knowledge into 700 pages about crafting the perfect plot and creating satisfying storytelling. A plot is a sequence in which a story …
Are You Lost, a Local, or Both?
Have you ever been lost? Have you sat in your car or stood on a street corner, looked around, and wondered where to turn next? Getting lost is not uncommon when we are in unfamiliar surroundings. However, we expect to know how to get from Point A to Point B in our neighborhoods without difficulty, …
Writers Life | The Words Keep Coming
Post-Covid apathy is real. For some, it leads to the Great Resignation, burnout, languishing, indifference, or the Great Whatever. Whatever it is, I seem to have it, and so do many other creative people I know and work with. In 2020, as the world locked down, I decided to use the time of seclusion as …
Writers Life | Seven ways to encourage an author to write more books
I never used to sign up for anything. I was a scrooge when it came to subscribing and downright anti-social on social media. Why would a ‘successful’ creative care what lil old me had to say to them? I thought. It wasn’t until I became an author I understood just how misguided that attitude was. …
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Writers Life | Three Simple Tips When Starting Out
It’s taken a tragedy in my life to finally encourage me to share my writing publicly. I have always loved words but my musings on paper have always remained within the covers of my journals. Then my life was turned completely upside down and my words on paper took on deeper significance. My husband passed …
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Devotional: The Expectation of Success
One of the most beneficial things a writer can do is attend a conference. These events provide novices and published authors with networking opportunities, social events, and instruction for learning skills needed to navigate the business side of writing. After attending a couple of conferences and finishing my first novel, I was encouraged to request …
Ten Ways to Build a Writing Habit
Can one tiny change transform your life? It’s unlikely you would say so. But what if you made another? And another? And another? At some point, you will have to admit that your life was transformed by one small change. James Clear One of the biggest questions I get from beginner writers is, ‘How do …