See that title up there? Up there ^ see, where it says, “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible”?

That was in my fortune cookie tonight from dinner.

I had fried rice with pork, chicken, orange sauce and string beans. Thanks for asking.

Oh, and a soda. I know, I know–but I indulge now and again.

It was diet, if that helps. Not really, huh?

So here’s the thing. It IS fun to do the impossible. I think I do it nearly every day of my life. Every morning when I get up and get out of bed, I’ve done what was, two years ago, impossible for me. Read the rest of this entry »

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Okay, so it’s not the nicest way to put it, right? I apologize. I really have issues with the word ’stupid’, so I try to use it sparingly. My father frequently called me stupid as a child, and more frequently asked me if I was stupid. I mean, how are you supposed to answer that?

“What are you, stupid?”

“Uh, yeah?”

So pardon me for the use of the word if it bothers you like it does me, but let’s try to keep the word in perspective and remove any power it has to enjoy the intent behind this post!

Here’s the thing. I’ve been reading about writing for a lot longer than I’ve been professionally writing. I’ve read all the ones who broke into the scene and many of the ones who haven’t or didn’t. I’ve read the good advice, the bad advice and the advice that makes you say, “Huh?” Read the rest of this entry »

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I have the heart of a writer…

….in a jar, on my desk.

Sorry, couldn’t resist. Buffy made me do it; I swear. It’s all her fault. Don’t worry. The image isn’t blood and guts and a heart. It’s making jam, strawberry. Promise.

Now, let’s get back on topic.

In the forum the other day, we were discussing characters in our novels. They are really amazing creatures, these people who live inside our heads. We breathe life into them. We make them whole, complete, real human beings, at least for as long as we hold their universe in our hands. I like the power of this, but sometimes, I balk at the responsibility of it.

When writing one of my current WIPs (work in progress for those who aren’t aware), Accepting Aimee, I have to be in a quirky mood to write her. She is like me in many respects, but in some very important ways, Aimee is nothing like me, and that sometimes makes writing her hard. Her best friend, Gigi, while nothing like me at all, is a lot like someone I’d like to be, so I find writing her (she has her own book coming up next entitled: What Makes a Woman – part of my Convington Confessions series of books) to be a lot more fun and easier for me, since I can slip into her skin, so to speak. Read the rest of this entry »

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Sitting on the table in front of me right now is a gorgeous vase of roses, yellow with orange tips, that I received for Valentine’s Day. As gorgeous as they were then, they are now opened up and in full bloom and are absolutely stunning right now. Don’t believe me? Check out this perfect, unretouched photo of a beautiful Texas yellow rose. Is that not the most beautiful rose ever?

Of course, on my bedside table is another bouquet of flowers, I also received on Valentine’s Day. These flowers were waiting for me at the table when we arrived at the Mockingbird Bistro, in Houston.

First, let me show you these, because they are quite unique and very pretty:

These are what I see first thing upon waking up in the morning, the last few mornings.

You know, I complain a lot about my health, and while I’m not going to sit here and say that it’s not so bad to live in constant, horrible pain, to have flares that make me swell up like someone blew me up like a balloon–I guess I do have to step back and say this: I love my life. Read the rest of this entry »

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Today’s little grammar hint and tip comes from a frequently asked grammar question that we regularly see come up on the writing forum: When do I use a hyphen vs. and em or en dash? Or better yet: What the heck is an em or en dash?

Never fear, I’ll answer both of those questions briefly in this blog post!

EM DASH:

What is an EM dash? An EM dash is the most common ‘dash’, and it’s used in punctuating sentences. It’s your double hyphen in Word and you can use it for parenthetical phrases, interrupting a sentences or dialogue, etc.

Example (from my short synopsis of my novel, What Brothers Do): Read the rest of this entry »

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…write.

Look, it comes down to this: the only real way to learn how to write is to actually sit down and write.

You can take all the classes in the world, study all the writing-related information on the net, read every book you find on the subject, study thesaurii (wouldn’t that be what they are in plural?) and dictionaries and read every writer you deem ‘great’ to try to learn what they do right and read all the bad ones to learn what they do wrong…

… but when it comes right down to it, the only way you will ever be able to learn how to write is by sitting down and writing.

It’s sort of like driving a car. When you go to driver’s education, they make you study the handbook, read all about driving, and even take a written test to show you can regurgitate that information, but you don’t get to driver’s license until you drive a real car by yourself, and to do that, you have to actually sit behind the wheel with an instructor and learn how to drive. You learn how to drive by driving, driving some more, putting yourself into situations you would be in when you are driving on your own–such as driving on the highway, stop signs, stop lights, right turns, left turns, merging, using blinkers…You learn how to write by writing more, putting it in front of a readership and letting them tear it apart, slam on the second ’special’ break, or scream at you that you’re going to get us all killed if you don’t, for God’s sake, slow down! Read the rest of this entry »

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Have you ever blown up a water balloon? You know, you fill the balloon up with water and it slowly fills, stretching the balloon and then, there’s only two ways to get the water out of it: pour it out the balloon’s mouth or pop the balloon. Either way, once the water is removed, the skin of the balloon is never quite the same again, is it? The skin of the balloon went from thick, strong, smooth… to stretched out, thin and all mushy.

I know, you’re wondering why I’m talking about water balloons aren’t you?

Let me explain, but before I do, let me talk about the word ‘flare’ as it pertains to my health. The other day, I mentioned in FB and Twitter that I was having a flare. Some of the folks, particularly on FB, were super kind and I really wanted to thank everyone for the well wishes, energy, good thoughts and prayers. Read the rest of this entry »

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CLOSED

The Accentuate Writers Short Story Contests have been amazing… some months I get a lot of submissions and some months only about 15 or so. It’s been interesting to me to see which themes get the most response. For example, the DEATH theme got a ton of responses while the Science Fiction theme, though I thought it might be popular, didn’t get all that many.

The themes that surprised me though were The Engagement and The Wedding. Neither of these themes received enough submissions to host a contest with any real competition. I considered just letting the people who had submitted win, but that’s not the real spirit of competition, neither is it what the AWF contests are about.

So instead, I’ve decided to open up both of these contests and accept additional submissions. IF you have a short story that you would like to write and submit to the themes: The Engagement or The Wedding–now’s the time! Read the rest of this entry »

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I run a mostly paperless office, which has been really nice for me over the years. I keep very good records, folders with things saved in them, emails with their own categorized folders, etc, and I have disc backups and saved disc copies of everything in case a computer goes bad, etc. My online store that I just started back in December, has excellent reporting features, and PayPal simply rocks in the way it keeps up as my Merchant account. I don’t think casual PayPal users are aware of just what all PayPal offers to us business users — it’s amazing the services they provide, the reports, the ease of use for tax purposes, etc. Fortunately for me, I do almost all of my work/income/sales through PayPal, which is kinda cool for me when it comes time to do taxes too.

I even scan in receipts, contracts and other things I get in paper form and save them to the appropriate folders too, so that even the few things I get papered still, I convert to paperless. Read the rest of this entry »

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Working on both sides of the submission desk, as an editor and an author, I am in a unique position to see how both sides feel–the author who is eagerly and as patiently as possible waiting to see if they are accepted or rejected, and the editor who has to deal with the insane authors when they are not so patient.

In the process of experiencing these two sides, I’ve learned a lot about how I should, as an author, treat, respond to, interact with the agents and editors I am submitting to based on how I feel as an editor receiving submissions from authors.

So what I have for you today are real issues I’ve had to deal with in acquisitions, and they are things that, as an author, I would never do! You shouldn’t do them either, unless your goal is to NOT get published.

#10 – Don’t send edited versions of the same submission. Read the rest of this entry »

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