writing

Why Writers Need Deadlines (and How to Self-Impose)

Writers love to write, right? So you’d think we’d do it all the time on our own volition, but the truth of the matter is we get distracted by the latest computer/video game, that shiny new fantasy tv series, writing

Why It’s Important to Read Outside Your Genre

For readers, this is an easy answer — because no matter how much you like a genre, it gets old after awhile. Everything starts to seem exactly the same, and if you read one more book about mermaids, you’re going

Converting Dreams to Stories

Last night, I had a nightmare. It was kind of a strange half-asleep, half-awake one, where there was this malicious entity staring at my husband and me while we slept from the shelves in our bedroom, and I tried to

Genre-Jumping

As an author, you often hear that you should pick a genre and stick with it. Does anyone else find this as impossible as I do? I love speculative fiction. ALL speculative fiction. And, going back to Thursday’s post, it’s

Gardening (An Analogy)

So, I have a vegetable garden in my backyard. This is year two – last year we had potatoes, onions, spinach, and broccoli, and it was lovely. Everything was very good and we reaped a plentiful harvest. This year we

Handwriting for Fun and Profit

If you’re anything like me, Squiders, you mostly write by typing. Word processor, blank page, type type type. It’s faster, it tells you when you misspell a word (though not when you put the wrong word in), it’s easy to

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.