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…
Tag: Writing
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?…
Good Friday Sacrifice
It’s Good Friday When the hordes Demanded blood Not theirs but another’s For the sin of uttering words They didn’t want to hear For not uttering the words They wanted to hear Words that rang, that sang, that clanged In their heads Of a Reality that doesn’t exist. It’s Good Friday When the people Demanded…
From Paper to Pixels
This is from a talk I gave to my fraternity on their Career Day. We are in an age of transition. Like those who went from calligraphy to the Gutenberg press, so we are going from pen and print books to tablet computers and ebooks. Up until early last century, manuscripts were written by hand.…
NaNoWriMo, Aban’s Accension, She is Done!
Phew! National Novel Writing Month — NaNoWriMo — is over! As I write this, many around the world are doing word sprints with some of the NaNo team to beat the deadline of writing 50,000 words in the month of November. Not me though! (Gloat) Last year, I finished my first novel She on the…
Rejection Get Away From Me
The envelope is thin. There’s no return address, but I know. It’s from a literary agent, one of many I wrote asking them to consider representing my latest book. I slit it open. Dear Author, “Dear Author”? Whadya mean “Dear Author”?! I spent hours reading guidelines, and y’all said: read the books we agent, find…