Notes From the Toolbox
Writing with a Maddeningly Lack of Urgency
Anyone searching for a slice of inner peace this week? The struggle is real. More, or less difficult depending on the circumstances of your particular life. No thanks, I think I’ll skip the Kurt Vonnegut novels right now, I’m living them. And yet, I’m not. Jump back—...
The Big Resolution Edit
2021 arrived. Today marks a full week of newness. But my little acreage of world doesn’t feel any different. Does yours? Covid-19 is still covid-ing up the death toll— especially in these United- cough- States— and all the baggage that goes along with it is alive and...
Turning Point Books 2020
Life’s latrine dumped itself on us this year. The bad and the ugly gave good love a workout. But love never tires; it’s the heat of life; it rises; it removes obstacles and illuminates hope. And that’s all the philosophizing this gal can do on the last day of the year...
Who-ville Envy
Tis the season for menorahs and stars; and stockings and presents— did someone say books?— and ho-ho-ho, and cookies and fruitcake and snow, snow, snow. And the Grinch. The Grinch hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season! Now, please don’t ask why. No one quite...
Writing’s Kick
I don’t want to be here. But I don’t want to be on the page of the other document either— the one under the Big-Edit microscope. It was my intention to cut short my Saturday reading and finish the current chapter— the one that’s been plaguing me. It took a happy turn...
The Case of the Unlikable Protagonist
And Happy Birthday, JoAn! None of you know my sister-in-law, but go ahead and give a shout out— a big Happy Birthday, JoAn! It’ll make you feel good, and those good vibrations will echo in her heart. I’m not the most consistent correspondent, but I always remember...
The Virtual Writing Lesson
The end of 2020 is near. I’m on the bandwagon with everyone else who is eager to see 2021 roll in. The new year will bring a new administration for these not so United States of America, and if everyone that rallied to ensure this change in our government keeps on...
My Dark & Stormy Journey to Gratitude
Happy Thanksgiving, y’all! Can I signoff now? It’s what I want to do. Not because I’d rather be working on the revision, or because the deadline is closing in, or because a gazillion guests will arrive any minute and more desserts and vegetable dishes need to be made....
How to Download your Writing
My oldest son used to love to say, "Back in the day." I hated it because he started to use it in his late twenties to refer not only to his childhood but to mine; his inflection made it sound like this, “You know, back in the day like in the Middle Ages, you remember,...
Why NaNoWriMo is not for Me
A plethora of writers around the world are in their 2nd week of NaNoWriMo. For anyone unfamiliar with the vernacular that’s National Novel Writing Month. The goal— write approximately 1,666 words a day for the entire month to achieve the ultimate goal of a 50,000-word...