My name is Tracey and I’m a book addict.
There. I’ve said it. Although anyone who knows me well is not surprised by this confession.
My book addiction (buying, reading… and writing, but that’s a different topic) has been in my blood since childhood. From the first time I began earning allowance, as a matter of fact, but after candy purchases. Candy almost always came ahead of books, but one had to have something to snack on while consuming all those books.
Read more
I write, therefore I am.
Writing was invented as a form of counting (the Babylonians and Hittites used it to keep track of commercial dealings), but humankind has felt a compunction to write something beyond mere record-keeping. We’ve used writing to express something about ourselves, apparently since the dawn of history. Our lives, our thoughts, our times. But why? Contrary to the old saying, you really can’t eat your words! So, what gives? Read more
I can’t imagine winter without Christmas. This celebration of light at the darkest time of year coincides with the end of my busiest time at work. As Christmas approaches, a frenzy of activity reaches its peak as we prepare up until those last moments before Christmas morning.
I always take some time off after this craziness. My boss has flown to more temperate regions, deadlines have been met and now it’s time to exhale and enjoy time with my family. But where in all this is the time to write? It sits in my belly like a seed waiting to be watered, waiting to see light.
It takes steely effort to find time for extra-curricular activities at this time of year. But all these frenetic, extroverted activities satisfy part of my soul and leave, in me at least, a deep craving for silence, for solace, for selfishness. I look forward to the dark nights ahead with no planned activities, just the storms blowing outside. We’ve satisfied our bodies with too much to eat and perhaps too much to drink. Now I can sit and write undisturbed, not feeling as if I’m missing out, too dog-tired to care. Read more
A Writers’ Conference is a place where writers gather together to celebrate the craft of writing. Writers are inspired, educated and are able to connect with other writers of all levels (beginners to advanced). A conference provides writers with the opportunity to network with other professionals: writers, authors, editors, agents and publishers. It also encourages writers to write, to publish, to promote and sell their own work.
New writers fear attending a writers’ conference.
“I’m not a real writer. Conferences are for real writers, they’re not for me.”
Published writers avoid writers’ conferences.
“I’ve been published already. I could teach every one of those workshops listed on the schedule. I don’t need to go to a conference.”
I disagree. Writers’ Conferences are for ALL writers. There is something beneficial about attending a conference at least once a year. I was lucky enough to attend two writers’ conferences this past year, and one was a newbie conference, so it had it’s issues, but overall, there was something awesome for me at both of them. Read more
I am a lot of things it turns out. I’m a crusader for equality of all kinds, I’m a musician and song writer, a blogger, a journalist, a bit of an amateur graphic artist, and a photographer.
I take pride in all of these things, and while I don’t think of myself as wildly successful at any one of them (more like mildly successful at one or two of them) there is, it turns out, another thing that I am that helps with all my other endeavours. Read more
Do you have a desire to write in the wilderness? Away from home and all daily distractions? I carry with me this postcard picture of a solitary person, surrounded by evergreens, sitting on a rock overlooking a sunlit lake – maybe a loon calling from the water – and writing my next novel. Then the ipad or laptop runs out of battery, completely ruining my postcard picture! Read more
Writing…writing…I’m a writer…I used to be a writer….I used to write! Ah! Memories!…of being connected to something deeper than the daily life I live! To sit with myself and the words on the screen, creating, organizing sentences, editing and thinking, my coffee and snacks around me, the word count increasing, the silence…
It’s been a few months since I sat down at my laptop – it’s a fresh new one now, a MacBook Air! – and spent some time. Moving to a new city has been a busy and destabilizing experience after being settled for ten years…Boxes to unpack and organize where on earth the contents would go (omg, more books????).
(Making time to write when you think your life is too busy!)
If you are going to write, if you are going to call yourself a writer, then write, finish something and put it out there. At a leadership conference I attended recently, part of the training was focused upon scheduling your time. Believe it or not, it wasn’t all about the proper way of saying something or modeling something; a huge chunk of time was spent teaching us how imperative it is to schedule the important stuff.
The gist was – in your life there are the big rocks, the stones, the things you want and must do to achieve success in whatever you do. The time for these things, like writing, is competing with everything else in your life… and let’s face it, if you want to be successful a writer, you need to write. You need to write, and often, until you are so good at it, that someone says, “Man, we gotta publish that!” The other stuff, like watching less than averagely good looking guys wrestle alligators on television, randomly surfing the internet or creeping facebook… is the stuff that will not help your writing career – that stuff is the pebbles, the sand, the dirt. If you fill your jar with pebbles and dirt first – then there is no room for the stones.