The Hard Words

Recently, I posted about writing difficulties: understanding poetry and getting the right amount of emotion into a piece. Going back as far as late spring, the words have been hard. I didn’t know why they were hard, only that they were. I chalked it up to finishing my novel, Shifting Mars’ Sands, with a writers’ … Read more

My Problem with Poetry

Two consecutive days of posts? Is there a problem? No. Christmastime is many things: busy, stressful, joyful, and at times, troubling. I suspect that I won’t make another post until after Christmas. So, I thought I’d get this post up… * * * The Saturday writing group is getting more poetry submissions. This poses a … Read more

Improving Slow Reads

Some time ago, I was told the beginning of my novel read slow. I wasn’t sure how to address it. I removed many unnecessary scenes and combined others. Still, I didn’t think I did enough. After spending the summer strictly doing reviews for the Saturday morning writing group, I acquired a new perspective. I needed … Read more

Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving was a quiet holiday, a four-day weekend of much needed downtime. My wife made a delicious Thanksgiving lunch with enough leftovers to last the rest of the weekend. For the first time that I can recall (though she said she’d done so once before), she used both ovens in the kitchen. I walked into … Read more