Guided Journals & other stories
Writing About Life
A Last Glimpse
I fully intended to keep a journal this year but it didn’t happen. My failure to journal was especially disappointing because 2020 hasn't been ordinary. It's been a wild and difficult year, a year to remember and learn from. I like to think I failed forward because I...
Cracker Brainwave Idea
Two and a half weeks ago I had a brainwave idea. One of those cracker thoughts that spins you around and keeps you working seven days a week. It was all about journaling. What if it wasn’t too late to write a journal for 2020???? I really wanted it to be possible even...
Random Magic
Today, I submitted my entries to the Scribbles Creative Writing Awards. It was a nice feeling, even though I could improve the stories if I kept working on them (forever, ha!). These two characters were snapped in Seville a couple of years ago: a bit of ordinary,...
Writing Life Hurdles
I began writing professionally when I was 26. In the beginning, I loved it so much it felt as though every moment was a joy, including all the muddy bits and the mistakes and the struggles. Fourteen years and 14 books later, the joy evaporated. That 14th anniversary...
Thinking of cork trees again…
Now that I’ve almost finished writing my young adult, science fiction, murder mystery novel, I’m almost ready to start volume II of the Promise of Stone series and I’m going to use a new method. In February this year I had the good fortune to be able to listen to Hugh...
My Language Nightmare
Meet my… bond mate? shadow daughter? love niece? significant other? clone? daughter’s mother’s daughter? I’ve been thinking about English language kinship terms and their woeful inadequacy when describing contemporary family relationships. Wife, husband, mother,...