Tag: the “messy middle”

  • Writing myself out of a corner

      It happened with my first book, and it’s happening with the second. I plunge into writing my book gleefully, without an outline. I love creating an interesting cast of characters and putting them into painful, impossible situations to see what they do. And what they think. I am a discovery writer to a certain…

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  • Anniversaries on the edge

    My husband and I have an unusual tradition for celebrating our anniversary. We didn’t intend for this to be a metaphor, but it’s a little too on the nose.  We drive, surf, boat, cycle, hike in snow, rappel, or do some activity in which we’re moving forward, together. Sometimes we live a little on the…

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  • How NOT to do an Artist’s Date

    The Artist Date need not be overtly “artistic”– think mischief more than mastery. Artist Dates fire up the imagination. They spark whimsy. They encourage play. Since art is about the play of ideas, they feed our creative work by replenishing our inner well of images and inspiration. Julia Cameron – The Artist’s Way blog –…

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  • The Cracked Rib Christmas

    2023 is the year I leveled up for ten months.Then I leveled way down. I wrote three books and a novella. With my siblings, I cleaned out and sold my dad’s house, in a very long sale process involving a squatter. After my dad’s passing, I paid his bills and taxes and closed out his…

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  • The Laughing Loaf Bacon Bread recipe

    Bacon bread is by far the most popular bread item from the original Laughing Loaf Bakery I operated. It’s made from a biga, a pre-ferment. Because biga is my go-to bread method, I named the pesky little dog in my cozy mystery series after it. The pre-ferment is much better behaved than the dog. 😄…

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  • Crazy love

    My dad, who passed away last fall, was often a difficult person to deal with. But I never doubted that he loved me. Fiercely. One thing I learned pretty early on: when another person expresses love for you, you’re receiving that love through a filter they’ve pieced together from their life experiences.

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  • A house named hope

    Four years ago today, on April 22, 2019, I sat in a Korean restaurant having a good, very spicy lunch with my friend Ann. I received a call on my cell phone that felt surreal, though I knew it had been coming for a long time.

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  • New year—new news!

    New years is not my favorite holiday. To me it seems arbitrary to have a big raging party for the beginning of a new year. Seriously, what really changes on January 1? And as we’re still stuck in pandemic times—which I hereby designate PT—even less has changed. We faced more of a retreat into our…

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  • The plusses of being an ADHD writer

    Home Short Fiction Blog X The memory tree Attention Deficit Disorder runs so deeply in my family that I’ve wondered if we should try to get a bulk discount on meds. It’s present in at least one of my siblings, then my nieces, a brother-in-law, at least two of my children–and me. My youngest child…

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  • Why I love Ted Lasso

    Home Short Fiction Blog X A reader gave me one of my favorite reviews. He liked Swift Horses Racing because my characters were a mixed bag. Sometimes they made good choices, sometimes they made really bad ones. “I like that,” he said, “Because people aren’t just one thing.” This past year, one of my favorite…

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  • How I learned to appreciate video games (or at least the people who play them)

    Home Short Fiction Blog X This is an update to a post I wrote a few years ago, in which I whined a lot about my husband’s quest to get me to play video games. In the past seven years, I haven’t become a gamer, but I’ve gained more of an understanding why people play…

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  • The joy of filling your head with stories

    I checked out books in my school library and devoured them through the week like cans of Pringles. 

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  • Getting through your *%&;$! first draft

    Home Short Fiction Blog X Two weeks ago, I finished the rough draft of my second book, Across the Red Sky. It was, like all first drafts, a mixed bag. Some really good twists, some so-so scenes. There are plot holes big enough to swallow SUVs. But it is done. As a perfectionist, I’ve always…

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  • Sneak peek: Across the Red Sky

    Home Short Fiction Blog X I’m happy to give you a peek into the upcoming sequel to Swift Horses Racing. And tell you a little bit more about the book. I’m a big fan of historical mysteries, but I also love to explore issues in modern life. In SHR, actions from 80 years ago had…

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  • Hitting the road, post-lockdown

    Home Short Fiction Blog X After 18 months of lockdown, last week we took our first family road trip in almost two years. I was one of those people who didn’t mind so much being trapped inside during the pandemic. I loved having my family around me, and I enjoyed not having to drive places.…

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  • Ashes, ashes

    Home Short Fiction Blog X Maybe it’s the extrovert in me, but I love when people read my book and get back to me with feedback. My first book, Swift Horses Racing, was released in April, and I waited (not very patiently) for comments and reviews. There’s something satisfying about putting your writing out there…

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  • Bite your lip. Take the trip.

    Home Short Fiction Blog X My first mystery novel, Swift Horses Racing, is now out. Putting yourself out there is scary. I’ve been writing for years—blog posts, songs, short stories and even a novel previous to this one.  It was hard for me to release Swift Horses Racing into the world. I had lots of…

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