Here’s the toughest post and the easiest post at the same time. Because we writers are a fearful bunch. Maybe it’s because we live in our heads all the time. We make things up for a living, so that habit bleeds into our lives. Most of us keep that part of ourselves under control. We […]
Continue Reading
When I started these posts, I mentioned that the most fearful part of our industry is the movie/TV industry. With so many jobs and so much money at stake, only a handful of people seem capable of making decisions in that industry, and even they do so with great fear. The most courageous part of […]
Continue Reading
I did not expect to be writing this series of blogs the week that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lifted the mask mandate for all vaccinated people. Ironically, the discussions around me everywhere—and I do mean everywhere—have all been about fear, in one form or another. I’m vaccinated, but I’m not ready […]
Continue Reading
The second vaccine hit my arm mid-April. I knew the vaccine was coming, and with it, a rather solid immunity to COVID-19. I won’t get hospitalized with a serious case, and the disease won’t kill me. It won’t kill Dean either, since he’s been fully vaccinated since February. Our little household is okay, and cleared […]
Continue Reading
I have had to revamp my writing deadlines. If you’ll recall, I wrote a process blog a few weeks ago about setting my writing deadlines on a granular level. It felt really good to do so. The deadlines pushed me—hard. With those, and my Spanish class deadlines, and some other things I’m doing, I found […]
Continue Reading
To survive the first few weeks of 2021, I have read a lot. I have also watched a lot of television. And I’m writing on a project just for me, something I haven’t done for a long time. The project just for me does some things that long-time friends might not approve of. The project […]
Continue Reading
On Saturday, November 14, I went on my usual morning run. I chose the route that took me past the Las Vegas Academy of the Arts, one of the country’s top-rated high schools. When I ran past this school pre-COVID, I would often hear voices raised in song, or a particularly amazing band practice. Sometimes […]
Continue Reading
I grew up in difficult times, not just for the world, but for my family as well. My family’s difficulties paralleled the difficulties around us. For example, my nephew, the first baby I ever held, died the same week as President John F. Kennedy. As the country reeled from his assassination, my parents and my […]
Continue Reading
The other day, I was reading a friend’s Facebook post about writing, when another writer popped up in the comments. Comment Writer, whom I have known for thirty years and whom I do not have a good opinion of, began their comment on self-publishing with “The only way to make money as a writer in […]
Continue Reading
I just saw an article this morning—which of course, I can’t find now—comparing the amount of news pouring at us right now to a DDoS (denial of service) attack. There’s so much news, every hour of every day, that we can’t keep track of it. I’m keeping up, as best I can, on the virus […]
Continue Reading