Category: On Writing
The Journey from Entrepreneur to Author
I am the owner of ttcInnovations, a small business dedicated to creating training solutions for clients that drive employee performance. This is a tough industry, dominated by big-name companies. Overcoming the name-recognition, woman-ownership and small-business stigma is just one of the battles I face as I work to expand my company. Remaining relevant to my […]
How Motherhood Influences My Writing
When I first told people that I had a book being published, the number one question people would ask me was, “Where did you find the time?” What I don’t even bother telling them is that I’ve got a computer filled with several other completed manuscripts that I hope will someday find a published home. […]
Why I No Longer Read My Book Reviews
Reviews cause writers angst. We need them, we fear them, and, in my opinion, too often, we take the time to read them. I LIKED MY LIFE came out with two starred reviews from Library Journal and Booklist, and kind words from Kirkus, but Publisher’s Weekly was decidedly unimpressed. That same pattern followed me on Goodreads and Amazon. Over a four […]
Busting the Myth! You’re Never Alone in the Writing Community
This is a little embarrassing. But it also is a reminder to me of how quickly time flies by. In 2011 … I know! … that’s just ridiculous … and I apologize … I wrote this post about women’s friendship for Women Writers, Women’s Books. At the time I had recently published my first novel, […]
Walking my Way to Writing
I have scribbled and strode my way through more than half a century of life, from the various neglects and insults of my childhood, through the frustrations and intimacies of relationships, marriages, and separations, to the frantic helplessness of health setbacks, the hard-won lessons gifted to me by my dogs, the slack-jawed joys of watching […]
What My Readers Mean To Me
My readers are gold! I can’t stress enough how I’m genuinely honoured that my readers have spent their hard-earned cash and their precious time with my novels. I would so dearly love to meet them and thank them individually, whether they were wowed or wish to convey more critical feedback. I like to think my […]
Writing About My Special Needs Daughter
One of my dearest friends recently told me, “Lindsey is the most difficult person with special needs I’ve ever encountered.” Folks might think such a statement would be disconcerting. After all, I am Lindsey’s mother. I’ve also written a book about our complicated relationship. However, instead of wounding my spirit, her words left me feeling […]
On Writing: Barbara Sissel
My children were born in a hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, but their first home was a state-issued, singlewide trailer on prison grounds some 70 miles east of Lexington in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. I was expecting my first son when I moved there with my then husband who had been promoted from prison […]
Forty-Two Year Old Women Don’t Have Adventures
Forty-two year old women don’t have adventures. She’d just be more appealing if she were thinner, taller and younger. We’ll buy it if you made her 25 and sexier. Female protagonists should NOT be flawed.. Why does she eat so much? And that wine—seriously? Can’t you… No I can’t and no I didn’t. Those were […]
Life In Words — My Writing Journey
As a young Scots lass whose family led a somewhat peripatetic existence, moving around the world, reading and writing were a constant that I treasured and often turned to. I was initially inspired by the work of Laura Ingalls Wilder. I’d draw lines on plain paper and write adventure stories, then bind the pages […]
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