Good morning, squiders. We’re having new trees put it to replace the seven (7! 50 ft or more tall!) trees we lost during the tornado. Only four (my arborist says we have to wait a few years to put trees
Being Productive, Yet Not
Good afternoon, squiders. It is snowing YET AGAIN, which is in theory a good thing because I don’t want any more of the state to burn down, but is also annoying because it keeps snowing when I have to go
An Endless Font of Inspiration
I think, Squiders, that all creative types, especially writers, sometimes hit a point where they worry that they’ve run out of ideas. That they’ve reached the end of useable ones. That their best work is behind them. (I admit that
It’s Oddly Comfortable to Have a Turtle on Your Head
Just to be absolutely clear, we are not talking about ceiling turtles. Ceiling turtles are vicious and will eat your ears. We’re talking your average, run-of-the-mill, preferably stuffed turtle. Stuffed as in plush. Not in a turtle-that-was-once-alive-but-now-is-not sort of way.
Productive Ways to Procrastinate Writing
Procrastination is generally bad, yes, but sometimes you can’t write for whatever reason. You don’t have a large enough block of time, you’re waiting on feedback or something from someone else, you’re in need of inspiration, etc. Here’s some things
Inside Writing Jokes (and the Importance of New Eyes Periodically)
I have the privilege of belonging to a close-knit writing community. This is awesome. I suggest you find a writing community and join it too, because they are invaluable in many ways. What I have found, though, is sometimes things
Get Out and Live
As we speak, my husband and I are somewhere deep in the Rocky Mountains. I’m using his cell phone as a modem – it’s like being on dial-up again – and we’re jamming to Falconer as my husband drives my
When is a Story Truly Dead?
I hear it in interviews, from my writer friends, at book signings – the novel that went into a drawer, never to come out again. Their first or third or eighth novel that was so bad it didn’t deserve to
What Ifs
Yesterday I took my first business trip with my new job. I fly fairly often, but it makes me nervous. (Unnecessarily so. I am, as I have mentioned before, an aerospace engineer. I know how commercial aircraft work. In terms
Turning on the Backburner
I’ll let you in on a secret. I’m not here. When this goes up Friday morning, I will be far away from here, hopefully most if not all the way up a mountain. “What does that have to do with
