I’m at that point in the book. It’s one of two moments of intense doubt that show up for me in writing a novel–every single novel. The first moment happens at around twenty-four thousand words. That’s about a quarter of the way in, when the basics of the story are all on the page …Read More
We had a security alarm incident at our house last weekend. Thank goodness we were home, because one of the fire/heat sensors fell off the ceiling and set off the alarm. It also set off all the smoke alarms and the security panel announced FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! and flashed that the fire department was …Read More
I demand a lot of the books I choose to read. Over the last decade my reading has become more directed–possibly narrower. When I reviewed books for a newspaper, I read widely: biographies, memoirs, literary fiction, history, commercial fiction. While I still read from all of those categories, most often I’ll read literary and commercial …Read More
At the end of last summer I took myself on an Artist Date to Marion, IL, which isn’t far from here. Marion was holding a festival with a car show in their town square, and I particularly wanted to hear my friend, Andrew Staff, and his band, The Swamp Tigers, play. Here’s that post. So many …Read More
I am a homebody. No two ways about it. Thank goodness I have a job that is means I get to spend lots of time in the place where I love. Okay. That was totally a Freudian typo. I meant to type “the place where I live,” but see how it came out? …Read More
January 28th Words Journal: 340 words Long fiction: 2026 words Short fiction: 0 Non-fiction: 0 words Blogging: 33 words Exercise: A smoke alarm fell off the ceiling, setting off the house alarm, an event that lasted for ten agonizing minutes during which I sprinted frequently from one end of the house to …Read More
What a strange week it’s been. After last weekend’s writing retreat, I came home pretty tired, anxious to get the last 20K words done on the novel. I didn’t get as many words done as I hoped, but I’m on track to write the epilogue over the next few days. The other thing I …Read More