Today was a good day; only slightly above mediocre and I know precisely why. I fiddled around on the beach for a while. Enjoyed a good book; a compilation of short stories and the writing was phenomenal which made them sensational. I felt my feet in the sand and I watched my daughter play. It was pretty much perfect or would have been. I managed to swing by a British store and pick up a packet of Jaffa cakes. I am a huge sucker for Jaffa cakes and the box is nearly gone. I need to go back to England. The fresh ones are better and there are so many other things I miss dearly. (more…)
People watching at the Beach
There are a great number of things to notice upon first slipping my toes into the warm sand of summer. It is a bit cliché, one of the really good ones, but I wiggle my toes in the sand anyway. I have always been a sucker for a good cliché and my feet finally being free in the sand is a perfect example. I would love to say the warmth and the happiness was a constant during my excursion but it was not. While people watching at the beach there are too many things to take note of and, my metaphorical notepad at the ready, I began to sift my way through the wreckage of modern society. (more…)
Part 1: Writing Query Letters for Beginners
Being an author can be an intense and frustrating job, particularly when that “job” leaves you unemployed. It often takes years to perfect a manuscript and it is only then that you discover it will take even more years to find an agent. So, as one author to another, I impart the following things I’ve learned and implore you for advice on the things I have not. I have learned… (more…)
Real Fiction
I’m frustrated. I’m frustrated as a mother raising a child in this new era. I’m frustrated as a woman who wants things of moral substance and eternal value. I’m frustrated as a girl who still has dreams and ambitions. Mostly, right now, I’m frustrated as a writer. What happened to real fiction? (more…)
Nothing but the past
“One of the documents on my computer, a biography of sorts, is password protected. Every time I go to log onto it, a box pops up and double checks to make sure I am the person with the authority to change it. I can’t change it. There are too many pieces of my life I lack the authority to change…” I don’t remember exactly when I wrote that but I know exactly what it was in reference to. It was me hiding from myself in some form. (more…)
Hospital Blog Part 2 – “I’m sure of it”
There are panels of experts, possibly thousands of them, who sit down consistently and hash out the details of precisely what a patient will be served for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The goal is not patient care, mind you, nor does it involve any form of nutritional value or medicinal ramifications.
This panel of experts gathers solely to decide which meals will rid doctors and nurses of horrid patients in the most time-effective and cost-sensitive manner without actually making the correlation clear between patient deaths and patient food.
(more…)
Hospital Blog Part 1 – The Apology and the Yatch
There are times in your life when you will think about doing something with no actual intention behind doing it. There will be the times when you wake up early in the morning for the sole purpose of working out before getting on with your day even though you already know what you are going to do is pour yourself a cup of hot tea, sit down with a good book, and allow a few minutes to pass in a much more tranquil manner than is usual for you.
So, when you read this following blog, please take to heart that there will always be things we think about doing with no actual intention of doing them.
(more…)
On the subject of releasing a new book
Releasing a new book is an odd sensation. I sit up in the night and wonder about every line on every page. I question my choices and my characters and I question the book itself. And then I remember, I remember it is a story written for pleasure. It is the pleasure of the writer which brings about the pleasure of the reader.
(more…)