There’s a robin’s nest near my kitchen window, hidden but for the activity around it. Robins zip into my view and land on a tasty patch of soil nearby, pecking at dead strands of grass, running along, pecking at another attractive set of nest-looking threads, running along until beaks drip many threads. Then they launch…
Tag: Writing
Easter Interrupts ScriptFrenzy
I took Easter weekend off from ScriptFrenzy. I wanted to be like a government worker for a brief moment and took off the whole weekend: Good Friday, Waiting Saturday, Celebratory Sunday. and Easter Monday. When Tuesday came, I was not ready to return to my regular routine and ScriptFrenzy. I wanted to continue to sit…
Tis Preparation Time for ScriptFrenzy!
It’s that time of year again, when one attempts to write in a foreign format and finish it within thirty days, the time otherwise known as — ScriptFrenzy. My calendar told me it was time to decide what to write. For the past few months, I keep seeing the same two characters on…
Novel Genesis
I’ve written a biography and three novels, and each has come to me or started in a different way. A conversation with my former boss at Judy Taylor’s funeral turned the light bulb on over my head to tell Judy’s mind-boggling story, to begin my long, long research and writing journey. For my first novel,…
Time and Space, a NaNoWriMo Novel, Sent off to Beta Readers
Finishing a novel and handing it off to my Beta Readers always makes me feel both nonplussed — am I really done? I forgot something, I’m sure I did — and at loose ends. I wander about my place, wondering what I’m supposed to be doing. Sometimes my pocket calendar is insistent enough to point…
Scary Writing Goals
“Now listen, you who say, ’Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ ’Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” (NIV James…
Winning NaNoWriMo 2011
I won NaNoWriMo!!! Phew. Winning National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) means I wrote 50,000 words of a novel in one month, the month of November. What it doesn’t mean is I’m finished. I wish! Nope, not finished. Sigh. I took a break Monday from writing once I had completed my novel (which is officially 65,637…
I Am A Survivor Journeying to Thriver
BIST (Brain Injury Society of Toronto) supports people with traumatic or acquired brain injuries (like moi) and their family members in the Toronto area and are affiliated with the Ontario Brain Injury Association. BIST asked me to write a survivor story for the BIST Beacon (PDF file), and my story appeared originally in the October…
Follow-Me, Follow-You Authors on Twitter Miss Out
Okay, I’m getting a tad fed-up. It is one thing to have marketing folk follow you on Twitter then a few days later, unfollow you. Obviously they’re trying to boost their follower count. But it is another for an author or writer to do it. What are they thinking? That Twitter is just for marketing?…