Category: On The Writing Life

From the Sublime to the Kafka-esque

No Sunday’s cake today: the husband’s out of town, and so any cake would sit here begging me to stick it with a fork.  Rather than succumb to temptation, I figure . . . next week. The White Ladies we…

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Oh-So-Ready For Her Close-Up

When I was a kid, my dad took pictures all the time and then did a slide-show, usually after a vacation or a summer or something like that. Now these were real slide-shows, the ancient Kodak carousel-type, with small squares…

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What’s in a Name

One of the first things my Carolrhoda Lab editor said–beyond hello, I love this book, I must have it–was that, in his experience, titles always change.  I have to admit, I was surprised.  Sure, I can see that some titles…

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On Spock ears, teenage dreams and Bill (throwing that darned chair)

Bop on by Dear Teen Me, a great new site chockablock with YA authors who offer some words of solace, wisdom or just plain hindsight to their teen selves. I’m there today, dithering about Spock ears, unrequited love and how…

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Truth in Fiction

On both Fuse #8 and Liz’s site, there are fabulous and fruitful discussions going on about authenticity and what obligations, if any, writers or reviewers have in terms of ensuring a narrative’s authenticity–and, darn them, they got me thinking about…

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If A Blog Falls In the Forest . . .

So I went to this con in Minneapolis: KidLitCon 2010.  Supposed to be for bloggers about blogging in—and this is my new word for the week—the kitlitosphere. (English is such a great and malleable language.)  Why did I go, especially…

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Sheboygan Children’s Book Festival

Sheboygan’s (and Wisconsin’s, I think) first-ever children’s book festival launched Friday night with a reception for Wisconsin authors and illustrators, continued through yesterday with presentations and workshops given by internationally-celebrated writers like James Dashner and Avi, as well as treasure trove of…

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New Day, Different Page

I knew there had to be a reason I trashed my old site; it was to give me an excuse to try something different.  This morning, I was still unhappy and all discombobulated about the site and so I figured,…

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The Enemy of Good

Well, if you’re noodling around my blog today, you’ll notice a couple differences.  Yeah, yeah, the header picture is brighter and cleaner, and I do like it.  (Well, only in IE: Mozilla Firefox is a disaster and I don’t know…

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The Dreaded In-Between Time

So I’m in the worst time of all: the time between when I have finished one project but not yet begun the next.  Oh, I have vague ideas, but they’re a jumble–just this inchoate mass that leaves me feeling all…

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