The question I always seem to ask myself every year or two: At what point did my life stop being mine? When did I allow others to dictate my life? I never do it intentionally. It starts out with the small and simple things that generally enlarge until I become a coward, and I’m unwilling …
November means NaNoWriMo
I’m a little late to the November NaNoWriMo party, but that doesn’t mean that it’s too late to start. What is NaNoWriMo all about? It’s about motivating you to write 50,000 words towards your novel in a month. For most of my young adult/middle grader novels, that’s about two books! I’m excited to begin my …
Happy Halloween!
The spooks come out tonight! I’m sitting here waiting on Trick-or-Treaters, and I cannot help but to think about Ashlyn Connor, the heroine of the Deirfiur (now The Necklace) series! Remember the incident that happened to her at the Halloween party? Well, it’s time for a new set of heroines in the Ashlyn Connor stories. …
Little comments lead to big thoughts
I had a student request to read The Necklace after I used the beginning as an example in class. The student was most encouraging in their words, and I’ll admit that I embraced the idea of being a great writer. What I know, and what I teach my students is that writing is recursive. It is …
Finding time
I am truly trying to find the perfect balance between teaching and writing. I think that it is something that may have to wait until summer, but until then, I am researching. Books always come with research. To create a believable world of characters, it takes time to research and put together a perfect outline. …