Paying it Forward, Writer’s Style

Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash

You may have heard the saying, Paying it Forward. Similar sayings include… to pass it on, sharing kindness, or repaying in-kind. This means that when someone does something nice, instead of paying it back directly to the person who performed this kindness, you do something kind for someone else.

In the writing world, Paying it Forward is a core component

of the writing community. It can include things like volunteering on a committee, organizing meetings for a writing group, planning writing retreats, beta reading, participating in critique groups, writing book reviews, making book recommendations, attending book launches, supporting other writer’s online messages, or BUYING THEIR BOOK. Many of these actions are the foundation of how the writing world thrives and survives. Read more

Scrabble tiles spelling Grace with flowers.

A Writer’s Grace

I’m late.  (not PREGNANT… just late, at life – everything, but specifically, this blog is late)

We set a blog post deadline. We give ourselves this deadline and ask that we keep to it as practice… practice in professionalism. How will we ever be expected to meet submission deadlines, editing deadlines, a launch deadline if we cannot keep to our own blog schedule?

Woman looking into the fog.
Photo by Devin Justesen on Unsplash

Then my brain starts to hummmmm… maybe I shouldn’t be a writer, maybe I don’t have what it takes, why is my brain so foggy, maybe this is that pesky-peri-menopause thing again, perhaps this is all just too much, I’m letting everyone down…

I’ve known the due date for weeks… MANY weeks in truth. How? How did I fail to get it written?

I enjoy writing these blogs. Very much so.

I’ve got every excuse in the world and yet no perfect excuse. I knew the deadline. I saw it coming.

Sure, I was on vacation. Sure, I was busy caring for others, then pretending to care for myself. Sure, I was distracted by family obligations, a sudden health scare with a beloved family member, the completion of a memorial for a deceased furry loved one…

I was immobile, incapable, tongue tied… is this, dare I say, writer’s block? Read more

Riding the Query Coaster

How is it almost June? JUNE! 

Now I ask you, fellow writer, considering we are half-way through the year, have you achieved your writing goals?

Photo by Conor Luddy on Unsplash

I haven’t.

At the outset of this year, I set a goal to start querying my Adult Speculative with Romance. The roller coaster that is querying began for me as I was propelled into querying, tricked in truth, into joining the line for a monstrous amusement park ride, the kind of ride that induces nausia, forcing me to lay out on the grass and ponder why on earth I would ever, ever to do that to myself. But somehow we forget and then find ourselves once again entering those line ups, too embarrassed to skip out at the last moment… but maybe we should. Read more

FIVE Tips to START and CONTINUE Writing

For someone who claims to love writing, I sure can find every excuse NOT to write. Here I am… on a dedicated writing retreat. A clean house, with big inviting windows, open wide to the creativity. The quiet that only a place away from home can provide; with no chores, no dishes, no laundry, no pets… only the sun streaming in and the trees waving their wishes to the wind. The house hums… hums with electricity, heating and… potential.

That’s it. Potential.

I make a coffee. For once, with no rush of the day, no next thing, no must be on time. I’m able to stir. Listen to the tin, tin as the metal spoon strikes and scrapes the sides to lift and mix my sugar, like I’m mixing my thoughts.

Starting, for me, is sometimes the hardest part.

Then… it’s about sticking to it and meeting my potential. That word again. Potential.

After a week away, dedicated to drafting, I need to find the fortitude to continue. This post is a pep talk for my writerly self. I hope you will find a nugget to polish into a gem. Read more

Barbed Wire Benefits

A few weeks back, I got a text,

“Coopers hurt. Can you check him out when you get home?”

Cooper had a deep and dangerous puncture, high up inside his back leg. It tracked into his groin and was only a breath away from puncturing his abdomen. It could have been life threatening. Considering our walking track and their playground is our zig-zagging forested trails through our maple sugar bush, I surmised Cooper must have snagged a branch in the wrong spot, at the wrong moment. Read more

Life Happens, Keep Writing

Eden Mills Writers’ Festival: Pathway to Publication with James Gordon, Barbara Kyle and Jean Mills

Before writing a blog, I review my past blogs to make sure I’m not repeating myself too much, and to assess where I was at and where I thought I was going. My last blog was August 28th and I was all set with my “MFA course”, personalized for a student of one: me. Now it’s a month later and have I made any progress?

Fortunately, I kept my plan flexible, I can adapt what I’m working on as life happens. the truth is, I’ve hardly been home in the past month. Labour Day weekend was spent moving my daughter to Ottawa for school. I was also determined to attend the Eden Mills Writers Festival this year. I hadn’t been in about 20 years! But as an almost empty-nester, and the threat of covid fading (not to mention this is an outdoor festival), and a workshop with Gail Anderson-Dargatz, my former mentor—I wanted to make sure I attended. Read more

IS IT REAL OR IS IT FICTION

Have you ever got caught up in a novel that seemed so rich in detail, so real, that you thought for certain the author must have lived that experience?

I mean, we know we’re reading a novel, which, by definition, is fiction. Yet how come a scene or a character will resonate so thoroughly that you find yourself wondering about the author’s real life? Surely an author who can write with such emotion, such clarity, must have experienced what his/her character is going through? Or at the very least, they must share a lot of the same traits as their character.

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Have Writing, Will Travel

I’m flying the coop! I’ve been a work-from-home mom for almost 21 years now. I’ve taken a couple vacations—a week here or there, but this one feels different. I’m going to Italy for two weeks, without my family. I travelled a lot when I was young and single. Doing two major backpacking trips: the first through northern Europe before I started a two month job in Norway. And then another, I refer to as my beach vacation: Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Venice Beach, California.

It was the time before internet, before a little phone in your pocket connected you to the world. I actually took a camera—and had no phone at the time. I remember the struggles trying to learn the pay phone system in each country so I could call home to my mother and let her know I was still alive. As a mother now, I’m deeply sorry for what I put my mom through!

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