It’s been a long, long time since I’ve dressed up for a Halloween party or any other costume event. But I was recently reminded of how much fun it can be. Georgia Writers Museum holds a “Meet the Author” event every month, when we invite a Georgia author to do a presentation, usually based on his or her most recent book. We select a theme for the event—also based on the book—and design the décor, food, and drinks around that. The head of our Programs [...]
I met a friend for coffee and catch-up last week. At one point, she pulled out a pocket-sized notebook to write herself a reminder for something she had to do later. “I just bought myself a fancy new notebook,” she told me, “but whenever I need to write myself a note, this is the one I always use.” She added that she doesn’t want to “mess up” her new notebook with notes and scribbles. She wants whatever she writes in it to be perfect. We [...]
Although my college graduation was almost 50 years ago—but who’s counting?—I continue to go back to school on a regular basis. I enjoy attending classes, workshops, and seminars, whether they’re to learn something totally new, to get advanced training, or just for fun. I’ve been in junior college courses, community ed classes, Bible studies, and master-level programs. And now I’ve gone back to kindergarten. It was Pre-K, actually, and I wasn’t exactly enrolled in the class. Instead, I was taking part in a program developed [...]
I was tempted to buy a t-shirt I saw advertised recently. It featured a row of books on a bookshelf, with titles that included To Kill a Mockingbird, The Color Purple, The Handmaid’s Tale, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The caption under the books said, “I’m with the banned.” I always enjoy a good play on words. And I’ve actually read most of the books that were listed. But the main reason this t-shirt appealed to me is how important the issue of book-banning [...]
It’s pouring rain as I’m writing this, although the weather may be sunny and dry by the time you read it – or even by the time I finish writing. But it’s been cloudy and gloomy since early this morning, and our weather forecast says it’s going to be that way all day – not that I go by the forecast when I’m planning my day. Still, I like it when I can stay home on rainy days, and not just because it keeps me [...]
It was in the middle of a recent writers workshop that a line from a Rolling Stones song popped into my mind. The line, and the song, is “You can’t always get what you want.” This happened as the workshop leader was talking about some of the nuts and bolts of writing a novel. While describing the development of character and plot, he said that the main character – and there should almost always be just one main character – must have a want and [...]
The writing group I belong to used to meet weekly. That was before COVID. Then, for a while, we didn’t meet at all. Eventually, we started getting together via Zoom, although we didn’t meet every week. Like many people and organizations, we discovered there were pros and cons to Zoom meetings. They were better than not being able to meet at all, and allowed long-distance members to take part. But technical glitches were frustrating and annoying. When it was okay to start meeting in person [...]
A friend of mine commented on last week’s blog about my New Year’s Resolution to spend an hour, first thing in the morning, writing. He suggested that one hour might be too big of a commitment at first, and that it would be better to start with a shorter amount of time – 15 minutes, perhaps, or even just 10. I’m sure many people would question how long it would take to write a book – or accomplish anything, for that matter – in 15-minute [...]
I’ve decided that 2023 is going to be the Year of the Book. This is no relation to the Year of the Tiger, Rabbit, Ox, Dragon, Snake, or any other animal celebrated in the Chinese New Year. Instead, it’s related to my New Year’s Resolutions. I’ve realized for a while now that I’m not spending enough time, on a regular basis, on any of the books I’m writing. I have four that are in various stages of completion, from great-idea-and-outline-done to basically-finished-but-needs-a-bit-of-tweaking. And none of [...]