freelancing Some Thoughts on Money and Writing In November, I clipped this piece of writing advice from Writer’s Digest (my apologies that I didn’t also clip the issue date — if anyone recognizes it, I’m happy to attribute.) I listened to my mom. She once told me to always live a little outside of my
6 A Year in the Life, Week 40: First You Have to Teach a Lesson This week’s writing exercise in A Year in the Life prompted me to write about a time that “learning a lesson” was somehow connected to a secret that you kept. I wrote about learning to play guitar when I was 22. Perhaps I wanted to learn guitar since those
blogging On Breastfeeding in Church My latest post is up at Young Adult Catholics, this one about Pope Francis’ most recent soundbyte (or mild implication) that it’s OK to breastfeed in church!
blogging Writing, Feedback, and Kindness on New Moon Girls Below is a guest post I wrote for Luna’s blog over at New Moon Girls. (And, by the way, if you know or love a girl between the ages of 8-14, definitely consider getting her a membership. And if you don’t, consider donating a membership to a school,
6 A Year in the Life, Week 39: Self-Reflection Week This week’s A Year in the Life Exercise was another … self-reflection week! Man, this is the last time I take a job where I have to undergo a performance review every three months. 😉 This one went better than the others, though. The exercise instructed me to start with my
authors Some Thoughts After a Writing Retreat I’m back from a three-day weekend spent at a cabin in the Black Hills on a little “writing retreat.” I got two full days of writing in, and discovered … that two full days wasn’t big enough for my ambitions. I so rarely get the chance to get away
blogging Catholic Spiritual Journals Just posted my latest entry over at Young Adult Catholics about Catholic spiritual journals. Any that you recommend?
fiction Write the Thing You Aren't Ready For The January/February issue of Horn Book magazine contains a great editorial called Books for the Ages. In it, Roger Sutton argues that: “Nobody ever became a better reader by sticking with books they were ready for.” It reminded me of something one of my creative writing teachers said when
Book Reviews Fairy Tale Book Review: Far, Far Away by Tom McNeal Far Far Away by Tom McNeal My rating: 4 of 5 stars I didn’t realize until I looked at the list of other books by Tom McNeal that I’ve actually read him before. I read his literary novel for adults, “Goodnight, Nebraska,” when I was in college. And
fiction "New Adult" Literature and No-Good Writing Advice Last week, I was reading “What’s New About New Adult?” in the January/February issue of Horn Book. The article is about the rise of “New Adult” literature, a sub-genre of Young Adult (or a sub-genre of adult) that focuses on characters in their late teens or early twenties.
6 A Year in the Life, Week 36: Admonitions This week’s A Year in the Life prompt asked me to reflect upon an admonition I remember hearing in my life. From my mom: “Don’t open the door for or go with anyone except Grandma, Amy, or Susan–even if they say I’m hurt or dead.” This
Book Reviews Welcome to the Year of 100 Books ... and the Best Reads of 2013 Well, I’m finally doing it: I’ve decided to set my 2014 reading goal at 100 books. A few years ago, before I discovered the wonders of audiobooks, I would have thought such a goal impossible; I was averaging about 40 books a year back then. But last year
Book Reviews The Handmaid's Tale and The Hunger Games - What Makes a Strong Female Character? This month, my book club discussed The Handmaid’s Tale. This is one of the books that has been formative in my life as both a reader and a writer. It was the first piece of dystopic literature I read beyond The Giver, and it awakened a taste for much,
6 A Year in the Life, Week 35: To Thine Own Self Be True This week’s A Year In the Life exercise asked me to write a question I received often, and to answer it in various ways. I was definitely a very late bloomer when it came to romance (first kiss? 28), and for a long time, people (relatives, mainly) were waiting
books Dark Crystal Author Quest - Done! My goal was to get my Dark Crystal Authorquest submission turned in before Christmas, and I met that goal at 7:10 pm last night. It feels good to know that now it’s out of my hands. When I got the confirmation message from the Jim Henson Company (and
authors Writing Book Reviews in the Age without Boundaries As is my habit on Sunday nights, last night I got caught up on my book-review writing. My Goodreads account is connected to my Twitter, so this morning I found that M.D. Waters had “favorited” the tweet that linked back to my review of her book, Archetype. The review
6 A Year in the Life, Week 33: Shopping Today’s prompt from A Year in the Life was to write about a store you went to as a child. I didn’t write much about a particular store, but about my memories of shopping with my mom. I wrote for probably an hour, which is about twice as
journaling Writing as a Spiritual Practice - My Wishlist I’ve been asked to help start up some kind of writer’s group at my church. I already have a great critique group for my fiction, and I’m a little burned out on writing activities that are “goal” and “audience” oriented. So I’m exploring the idea of
NaNoWriMo Dark Crystal Authorquest - The Final Stretch I’m entering the final stretch of the Dark Crystal Authorquest, and much as in the frenzy of NaNoWriMo, I’m starting to feel as though I hardly have any words to spare for non-Authorquest writing endeavors. I did manage to write last week’s Young Adult Catholics post while
6 A Year in the Life, Week 31 - Your Perfect Opposite This week’s prompt referenced the Griffin and Sabine books, which I meant to read once upon a time but which kind of fell of my radar. In particular, it talks about how the symbolism in Griffin’s letters implies that he is searching for his “perfect opposite” so he
fiction Have Books, Will Read, Need Time Recently, I’ve had the good luck to acquire a nice stack of new (or new-to-me) writing books. They are … Publishing E-books for Dummies by Ali Luke – This is fairly technical reading, but after checking it out from the library, I really wanted my own copy as a reference. I’
Book Reviews Book Review: Jim Henson: The Biography by Brian Jay Jones Since The Dark Crystal has been occupying so much of my creative space these last couple months, it seemed worth sharing my review of the new Jim Henson biography here. As a creative person, I found the biography to be inspiring on many levels — in its reassurance that even cultural
authors My Marketing Revelation Last week, I went to a community ed class about how to market your book put on by Sarah J. Pepper, a local author who has achieved success through both traditional and self publishing. I always wonder when I show up at these things whether I’ll learn anything new,
6 A Year in the Life, Week 29 - A Recipe The prompt from A Year in the Life for this weekend was “a recipe” — that is, how do you put together something you know how to create well? It was ironic because I got this prompt when I sat down to write the night I finished my Once a Month
