My class ended on Wednesday with a surprise A+ on a quiz I hadn’t studied for. That was lovely. A bunch of other things happened these past few weeks, all good, which I really can’t share except to say that they were marvelous. And Dean Wesley Smith and I celebrated our 40th anniversary on Monday. […]
Continue ReadingIn the last few years, a whole bunch of you folks kindly helped me stay focused on my writing by joining some challenges with me. One of those challenges was for short stories in December, because it’s hard for writers to find writing time in the holiday season. I’m getting back to writing full-time, and […]
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You know, sometimes cats make great assistants, and sometimes, no matter how hard they try, they’re not up for the task. Angel tried to help me with my writing challenge in December, but it didn’t work. First of all, I gave up writing on yellow legal pads in the seventh grade. (Although I did write […]
Continue ReadingDean and I just finished outlining the entire Mystery Novella class that we’re co-teaching. It’s based on the writers workshops that I have always wanted to do in person, but I think it would take at least two weeks, several hours per day, to teach one novella class. Right now, that’s cost prohibitive here in […]
Continue ReadingAs some of you know, WMG suffered quite the business crisis this spring. Suffice to say that it was startling and angry-making. The upshot, though, is that the company is healthier than ever before…and I need to be the one in charge for a while. That would get in the way of my writing, if […]
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The picture above is of my cat Angel, who, when she challenges us to play, sometimes looks vaguely nuts. That’s how I’m feeling right now. It’s been a heck of a few months, and I realized on Sunday that I simply did not have the focus to spend long sessions writing and thinking about story. […]
Continue ReadingBecause of everything that’s happened this fall—Dean’s accident, food poisoning (mine Thanksgiving week), school shooting (good God)—I’ve been a bit distracted (which is the understatement of the century). I’ve learned, though, that fiction writing is a refuge and a release for me. But I can be and often am distracted by everything. If I’m in […]
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A fascinating thing happened in the two quiet weeks of the holiday season. Dean and I worked on a publishing challenge, and we learned something by doing so. We always learn when we teach. Always. And Dean loves challenges. Me, not so much. I set my own writing challenges because if someone else tells me […]
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