Tag: inspiration
How My Probation Career Influenced My Writing
It’s always hard to know, isn’t it, which came first? The chicken or the egg. And that’s how I feel about my life as a crime writer, and my previous one as a probation officer. Let’s say my probation career was the chicken. I went into the job in my early twenties, burning with a […]
Dialogue and Subtext: The Spoken and the Unspoken
Subtext is a key element in transforming blah serviceable dialogue into dazzling dialogue. Why? Because great, genuine sounding dialogue happens at two levels: what is spoken and what is unspoken. What is said and what is meant. Children, drunks, iconoclasts, and people with impaired social skills tend to say exactly what they mean all the […]
I Used to be a Writer
“How about I meet you up at the…ah…the…office at the front? You know, the place with the desk?” My husband responds quickly and kindly. “The lobby?” “Well, sure,” I respond, “but there’s another word I’m thinking of here.” We’ve danced this dance before and he knows I’m not going to drop it until the word […]
Having an Affair With Your Writing
Recently I completed my first young adult novel. As anyone writing a book can attest, it was a long slog. Personally, I wouldn’t have been able to complete it were it not for two creative sources of inspiration that rocked my world in a major way—Broadway’s Hamilton and Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic. Let me back […]
Library Guilt
Like almost every other writer I know, I love to read. A good book recommendation from a good friend is better than chocolate (at least for me). And I can become quite annoying talking about said book to anyone willing to listen. I love holding books in my hands. I love sitting on the sofa […]
The Power of Nancy Drew
Literature adds to reality; it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become. —C S Lewis Growing up in Sherwood Park, a sleepy enclave in Yonkers where nothing exciting ever happened, I was […]
Writing When You Aren’t Writing
Any writer, and I assume many non-writers as well, have heard the sage advice, “Write every day.” At many times in my life, I have both agreed with the advice, and then, ultimately, admonished myself for not following it. Surely I couldn’t call myself a writer because I didn’t follow that advice. At my best, […]
Deciding To Be A Writer
“Anyone who wants to say goodbye should come this morning,” said the voice. He was very clear that we should not leave it until the afternoon. The doctor had called about six in the morning to tell me that my mother was not going to recover from the pneumonia that had seen her stricken in […]
Talking Yourself Down and Talking Yourself Up (aka: Fighting the Two-Headed Dragon of Insecurity)
Insecurity, covered with writhing, glinting scales, is a dragon – a truly frightening creature. But here’s the worst part: the dragon has two heads. The battle against the beast begins the moment you put your fingers to the keyboard with serious intent. Your intent is to be a writer. A writer in the wool-stocking, coffee-gesturing, […]
The Chameleon: How Writing Changed Me
I was forty-three years old when I wrote my first novel. It was a game-changer, no question. Not for monetary reasons. Not for “fame.” But for allowing me an outlet where I could finally be me. I’ve led a chameleon’s life, an expert at blending in as circumstances dictate. I graduated from the United States […]
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