As a contributing writer for InspireMeToday.com my latest posting appeared yesterday.
‘Life’s a bumpy road; we can all agree on that. You’re not going to avoid it. Stuff just happens. The trick is to avoid falling into the ten foot holes. Chances are, no one will be there with an eleven foot ladder to help you out…..’
Click here to read the entire article.
Once again time has gotten away from me and I need to revisit my love of new and old words. (Blog Jan. 8th) In this series I talk about my ‘box of chocolates’ being filled with words.
Texting has created a whole new language of abbreviations, misspells and down right goofyness 
and that’s a good thing in this century of technology. But can’t we do both? Be articulate? Literate? and be able to string a decent sentence (or paragraph) together? Is that asking too much?
I love the sound of these, the way they feel in my mouth.
Ebullient: overflowing with fervor, enthusiasm, or excitement, high spirited. (much the way I feel about my blogging)
raconteur: a person who is skilled in relating anecdotes interestingly. (what I try to achieve while blogging) I had not heard this word used before until last Sunday, on Masterpiece Classics on the PBS when Mr. Selfridge’s line was, ‘I am a raconteur.’ when referring to his story telling.
avidity: greediness, keenly eager. (much the way I feel about my blogging)
insouciance: indifferent, lack of care or concern. (the antithesis of how I feel about my blogging)
extant: still in existence, standing out, not destroyed. (my blog still exists and I hope ‘stands out’)
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I’ll be ‘positing’ more to this series of favorite words. Feel free to send me some of yours!!
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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS! A SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner”
I have had a wonderful response from other authors and will feature an interview once a month . I have invited such luminaries as: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Caroline Leavitt, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, Robert McCammon, Sue Grafton, Walter Mosley, Raymond Benson, Nora Roberts, and many others.
So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create! Mark Childress is our April author. Robert McCammon is scheduled for May. Caroline Leavitt is June‘s author. July features Rhys Bowen. Sue Grafton is August’s author with a bonus chat with Cathy Lamb. September will feature Tasha Alexander. Slick mystery writer, Andrew Grant will join us this winter.
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To receive my posts sign up for my 
Go to the home page; On the right side you’ll see a box where you can enter your email address. Click on “join my blog”. You need to confirm in an email from ‘Writer at Play’ . Thanks!
This past Sunday I finished the first draft of my second novel. 74,000+ words and 365 pages. This was possibly the purest writing I have ever done and almost an out-of-body experience. WHY? You ask?
I let go!
As most of my friends will tell you, I am a double ‘A’ personality with control issues. Okay! Call it what it is; I’m a control freak!
But this time, I started with only a loose outline in order to keep my historical facts straight and to track where I thought I was going with the story. I had written the prologue months ago. On February 19th I marked my calendar that this was the day that I would begin writing it in earnest.
By the second chapter the characters took the story away from me and told me to hang on and start typing.
They told me who they were, where they were going, who they loved, why they had failed and all about their flaws. 
Now! Other than the fact that I am in excellent company, I would agree with you when you mutter, “She’s just plain nuts!” But according to the authors that I am now interviewing on a monthly basis, this is not bat-poop crazy but rather a condition that most writers dream about and when it does happen they don’t question it….they just let it happen and they give thanks!
During long, long days of writing (sometimes until my fingers refused to work any longer) I spent my non-writing, quiet time surrounded with great authors. Either posting their interviews, reading their poetry, or curled up with a good book. I believe that reading makes us better at our writing.
I am so inspired by other good writers.
So let go! Open your hearts and minds and let it flow. Don’t force the direction of your story…it will never be exactly like you planned and that’s a GOOD thing!
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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS! A SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner”
I have had a wonderful response from other authors and will feature an interview once a month . I have invited such luminaries as: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, Robert McCammon, Sue Grafton, Walter Mosley, Nora Roberts, and many others.
So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create! Mark Childress was our April author. Robert McCammon is scheduled for May. Caroline Leavitt is June‘s author. July features Rhys Bowen. Sue Grafton is August’s author and September will feature Tasha Alexander. Slick mystery writer, Andrew Grant will join us this winter.
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To receive my posts sign up for my Go to the home page; On the right side you’ll see a box where you can enter your email address. Click on “join my blog”. You need to confirm in an email from ‘Writer at Play’ . Thanks!
Another ‘word master’ that I am very fond of is Robert Service. You might ask, ‘Wasn’t he the guy that wrote some poem we heard in high school about ‘The Shooting of Dan McGrew?’ Oh, grasshopper, that’s just the tip of his brilliant iceberg.
Here’s a tidbit to refresh your memory of those days long past (for some of us)
‘A bunch of the boys were whooping it up in the Malamute saloon;
The kid that handles the music-box was hitting a jag-time tune;
Back of the bar, in a solo game, sat Dangerous Dan McGrew, And watching his luck was his light-o’-love, the lady that’s known as Lou.
When out of the night, which was fifty below, and into the din and the glare,
There stumbled a miner fresh from the creeks, dog-dirty, and loaded for bear.
He looked like a man with a foot in the grave and scarcely the strength of a louse,
Yet he tilted a poke of dust on the bar, and he called for drinks for the house. There was none could place the stranger’s face, though we search ourselves for a clue; But we drank his health, and the last to drink was Dangerous Dan McGrew.’……
(The Best of Robert Service**Dodd, Mead & Co. Publishers)
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Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know you don’t ever read poetry but if you have a spark of ‘the Wild’ in you, (and I know that you do) read this! You will not be sorry. It is food for the wildness in your soul.
‘Were you ever out in the Great Alone, when the moon was awful clear’…. ..And the icy mountains hemmed you in with a silence you most could hear; With only the howl of a timber wolf, and you camped there in the cold, A half-dead thing in the stark, dead
world, clean mad for the muck called gold; While high overhead, green, yellow, and red, the North Lights swept in bars?- Then you’ve a hunch what the music meant…hunger and night and the stars.
‘Can you remember your huskies all going, barking with joy and their brushes in air; ‘You in your parka, glad-eyed and glowing, Monarch, your subjects the wolf and the bear. Monarch, your kingdom unravished and gleaming; Mountains your throne, and a river your car; Crash of a bull moose to rouse you from dreaming; Forest your couch, and your candle a star. You who this faint day the High North is luring unto her vastness, taintlessly sweet; You who are steel-braced, straight-lipped, enduring, Dreadless in danger and dire in defeat; Honor the High North ever and ever, Whether she crown you, or whether she slay; Suffer her fury, cherish and love her– He who would rule he must learn to obey.’ (Robert Service)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In my short play, “The Bard of the Yukon” I have attempted to introduce Robert Service to young people. A play perfect for middle-school and high-school class rooms it is set in the bedroom of three teenage sisters as one prepares to run away to Alaska and follow in Robert Service’s footsteps. I’ll leave you with this:
THE CALL OF THE WILD (excerpt) 
by Robert Service
‘Have you broken trail on snowshoes? Mushed your huskies up the river, Dared the unknown, led the way, and clutched the prize? Have you marked the map’s void spaces, mingled with the mongrel races, Felt the savage strength of brute in every thew? And though grim as hell the worst is, can you round it off with curses? Then hearken to the Wild—it’s wanting you.
Have you suffered, starved and triumphed, groveled down, yet grasped at glory, Grown bigger in the bigness of the whole? “Done things” just for the doing, letting babblers tell the story, Seeing through the nice veneer the naked soul? Have you seen God in His splendors, heard the text that nature renders? The simple things, the true things, the silent men who do things— Then listen to the Wild—it’s calling you.’
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Service was born, raised and educated on Scotland. At age 21, dreaming about a cowboy life, Service left Scotland and moved to Canada traveling by rail from Montreal to British Columbia. He lived in Victoria, BC, and spent his first few years traveling up and down the west coast. He was a banker by trade and went to work in Victoria and later (around 1904) was stationed in White Horse, Yukon.
Service understood the difficulties of living in the north and he very much appreciated the beauty of the land. Soon Robert Service was writing poetry about the north and sent a package of his poems to a publisher. One of the poems Service included was to become one of his most famous, The Cremation of Sam McGee. His book of poetry was enormously successful and he became wealthy almost overnight. He kept his bank job and a year later was transferred to Dawson City making the trip by dog sleigh. (photo of him outside his cabin in White Horse.)
During World War I, Robert Service was a war correspondent for the Toronto Star. In 1913, 
Service arrived in Paris, where he would live for the next 15 years. He settled in the Latin Quarter, posing as a painter. He continued to write poetry and novels and amassed wealth. He often pretended to be poor. Robert Service was considered the most read poet of the 20th century.
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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS! A NEW SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner”
I have had a wonderful response from other authors and will feature an interview once a month . I have invited such luminaries as: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Maya Angelou, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, Robert McCammon, Sue Grafton, Walter Mosley, Nora Roberts, and many others.
So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create! Mark Childress is our April author. Robert McCammon is scheduled for May. Caroline Leavitt is June‘s author. July features Rhys Bowen. Sue Grafton is August’s author and September will feature Tasha Alexander.
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To receive my posts sign up for my Go to the home page; On the right side you’ll see a box where you can enter your email address. Click on “join my blog”. You need to confirm in an email from ‘Writer at Play’ . Thanks!
Inspire Me Today. com has invited me to be a contributing writer on their site. Promoting success, empowerment, and inspiration. Recently I wrote about doubting ourselves. Here’s what some other people you might have heard of had to say about that.
“When in ‘doubt’, blow something up.”
(When in doubt do something nice for yourself. Sit in the park and watch the world. Make a list of ten things you like about yourself.)
“All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.”
(Life in general is swimming along, holding your breath and trying to do the best you can.)
“How do I know what I think until I see what I say?”
(So often words pop out of our mouths before we’ve thought it through.)
“Everything that doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. And later on you can use it in some story.”
(Amen, amen to that! and you’d be surprised just how strong and resilient you really are!)
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
(There is no greater agony than bearing A DREAM inside you and not fulfilling it.)
To read more, join us at InspireMeToday.com
http://www.inspiremetoday.com/blog/2013/04/do-you-doubt-yourself/
Several months, maybe a year ago, I was invited to share 500 words of wisdom with the world. InspireMeToday.com asked if they could re-run the article.
‘I sit in my cabin in the woods as I write my message to the world. With only five hundred 
words to use, I am inspired to send my message to young women. Growing up in traditionalism as I did, I found my freedom and my voice later in life. I discovered that I could be so much more than a wife or mother. I COULD BE ANYTHING I WANTED TO BE. An old refrain certainly, but it’s old because it’s TRUE. Don’t do it someday, DO IT TODAY!
I started out standing in the second-hand light of a man. (Traditional, remember?) I finally figured out that I couldn’t change, fix, repair or control another human being, as hard as I might try. I learned that the only person I could fix or change was me! And I am grateful every day for that lesson’…….to read the whole article go to: http://www.inspiremetoday.com/
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InspireMeToday has asked me to be one of their regulars and contribute to their blog. Today was “Growth through Writing”. Go to: http://www.inspiremetoday.com/blog/2013/03/growing-through-writing/
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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS! A NEW SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner”
I have had a wonderful response from other authors and will feature an interview once a month . I have invited such luminaries as: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Maya Angelou, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, Robert McCammon, Walter Mosley, Nora Roberts, and many others.
So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create! Mark Childress is our April author. Robert McCammon is scheduled for May. Caroline Leavitt is June‘s author. July features Rhys Bowen. Sue Grafton is August’s author and September will feature Tasha Alexander.
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To receive my posts sign up for my Go to the home page; On the right side you’ll see a box where you can enter your email address. Click on “join my blog”. You need to confirm in an email from ‘Writer at Play’ . Thanks!
“He was, in my opinion, the greatest American fiction writer of the last half of the 20th century. Fortunately for his book sales, 
most think of him as the archetypal drunk, misanthropic male pig. Whatever else he was, he was also the archetypal writer, a force of nature who knew exactly what to do to a blank page.
Bukowski attributed so much weight to the single line that it eclipsed all else in his philosophy of writing. If the single line was magnificent, the rest would take care of itself. In a 60,000 word novel, the
working focus was on the single line. In the sex stories he wrote and sold to skin mags for money, the working
focus was on the single line. In a small, immortal poem that 50 people might read, his working focus was
on the single line.
Do you possess this kind of love for your words? Do you respect your craft enough to narrow your focus
to the attention of a single line? It’s not easy. It’s not fast. But this must certainly be a path to immortal (and powerfully influential) writing. If you can stomach it.” Robert Bruce (copyblogger.com) about Henry Charles Bukowski, Jr.
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Well? Do you? Possess this kind of love and respect for your work?
I’ve used the words: “re-write” and “delete” and “edit” so much in my blogging you probably want to take a
‘delete’ key to me! BUT! It’s what makes a so-so writer into a good or great one.
Experienced writers know this and value the rewrite more than anything. That’s really when the magic happens.
In a recent interview here with Jo-Ann Mapson, she said, “I love rewriting. Just thank God for it every single day, because that is where good writing pokes its head up.”
A word to you aspiring writers: I’ve been there, believe me, when I was terrified to delete a single word.
Not that I was certain that everything I uttered was ‘gold’…..far from it….no, terrified that I had nothing better to replace it with. Now that I have found my ‘process’ I understand how I work. I write it in my head for days, then, when the moment comes I type (thank God for my secretarial skills of 75 wpm in a previous life). Once the story is laid down, I begin the re-writing, editing, adding, deleting.
Re-writing and deleting: some of my best work has been born in the re-write. Some of my worst work has been 
deleted. Get it?
The Delete key: I know, I know, I’m a tired old record. But it can’t be said enough. Get to know and love your
delete key. Every word you write isn’t going to be ‘golden’. Before you push your child (story) out into traffic
(the world) you are the only critic and editor in the room. Be certain that you critique yourself; keep polishing,
keep editing.
I’m of the school of writers that believes my work is never finished; I could and have found something to re-write in everything I have published. It’s a demon I have to live with.
The Mocking Bird by Charles Bukowski ©
The mocking bird had been following the cat
all summer
mocking, mocking, mocking
Teasing and cocksure;
the cat crawled under rockers on porches
tail flashing
and said something angry to the mocking bird
which I didn’t understand
Yesterday the cat walked calmly up the driveway
with the mocking bird alive in its mouth
wings fanned, wings fanned and flopping
feathers parted like a woman’s legs
and the bird was no longer mocking… (from his book of poetry: The Pleasures of the Damned)
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Start your month off right!! DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS. INTERVIEWS with other best-selling AUTHORS! A NEW SERIES, “The Writer’s Corner”
I have had a wonderful response from other authors and plan on featuring an interview once a month . I have invited such luminaries as: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Maya Angelou, Robert McCammon, Mark Childress, Sue Grafton, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, Walter Mosley, Nora Roberts, and many others.
So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create! Mark Childress is our April author. Robert McCammon is scheduled for May. Caroline Leavitt is June‘s author.
July features Rhys Bowen. Sue Grafton is August’s author and September will feature Tasha Alexander.
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To receive my posts sign up for my Go to the home page; On the right side you’ll see a box where you can enter your email address. Click on “join my blog”. You need to confirm in an email from ‘Writer at Play’ . Thanks!
Recently a fellow writer and friend asked me this question: “What does the process of going from “no
book” to “finished book” look like?” In the new series, “The Writer’s Corner” it seems to be each featured author’s favorite question. Having also completed 16 novels I’d like to add my two cents:
I used my play script (by the same name) as my book outline/treatment. As the scenario was so current (because it was a play), I found that flashbacks were a great way to flesh out each woman’s story and it served me well.
It took me a year and four months to write and edit it. That equals 72,000 words.
I did not have a deadline and it probably would have really helped. I was my own deadline setter and that didn’t work out so well. On the other hand, I think having a publisher breathing down my neck would have stifled my creative flow. When life got in the way I wouldn’t work on it for weeks but then I would get inspired and work on it for days, weeks, non-stop, sometimes 10-14 hours a day. So I guess it all evened out. Whatever you do, don’t beat yourself up if you don’t write for a few days… although I preach that you should write something every day. But if you hit a dry spell, you’ll make up for it with better, more relaxed creative writing.
Because I inherently ‘rush’, I found that I had to watch-dog myself and be careful not to leave out important roads of the story. I was in early proofing of the final product of my novel and realized (in a countless re-read) that I had never described my female negotiator’s physical appearance. (Yikes!). Again, (if the writer tends to rush) go back and re-read your work to see where you need to flesh out a chapter or a character.
I am not structured at all. I write a new project in my head for days, weeks and then when my brain is about to burst I begin putting it down on paper (computer). I also write out of sequence and I think that’s okay. My novel’s last chapter was completed months before the middle was written.
Some writers have actually written whole books while blogging; they found it less daunting by writing in segments. At the end they had a book and then they published. If you need a deadline the days that you commit to writing a blog would serve. For me this wouldn’t work; I would feel too exposed having my rough draft out there for the world to see as I am a writer who slams it down the first time around and then edit, edit, delete, edit. Did I mention that the lettering is worn off my ‘delete’ key?
Frequently I will begin a story that has inspired me, not knowing much about the subject. It has sometimes stopped me dead in my tracks while I researched (example: hostage negotiations or building a cabin in the 1920’s). I had 8 pages of a new play about Winston Churchill written and had to stop to do research. I find that it can be done while I am writing and that is what I prefer. It’s more fun and keeps me interested. I don’t think I would do well having my research all done before I put my story down. I find that the research itself inspires my story line.
And then there is that unseen, unheard phenomenon where, with any luck, the characters take over and you become the typist. . This has happened to me time and again, and while I resisted at first (being a control-freak) I now embrace and welcome it. In Women Outside the Walls my character Alma, at sixteen, is abandoned by her promiscuous mother. Alma is befriended by the ex-girl friend of the man Alma had a teen crush on. They end up being room mates. I could never have dreamed that one up; but my characters got together and decided that this was what they would to do.
I don’t think that there is a right or wrong way to go through the process. Each writer should be unique in how they work. Instead of thinking of it as a project/deadline ‘thing’; think of it as a work of art, created just for you and by you. Where possible, let the characters lead you. They will never steer you wrong!
well, there you have it…the process such as it is and how it works for me.
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Back on September 27th I wrote a post about finding inspiration for my writing in weird places…..grocery check-out lines….
to quote myself, “Well, it turned out that in front of the ‘boxes’ in his cart, and out of my line of sight, were two dozen very tiny cans of dog food. It seems that you can buy three tablespoons of dog food in individual cans for your darling pet……”
Now I am starring in my own ironic story of September 27th. You see, I have acquired a 
new kitten, 12 weeks old, and like a good parent (the other day) I was buying the cat food that she prefers. Fancy Feast, Classic. In a rainbow of flavors: salmon, seafood, turkey. All in adorable 3 Tablespoon sized cans. And of course another new toy for Fiona’s playtime pleasure.
I was instantly reminded of the old man whom I had observed, not so long ago, indulging his pet’s needs. Now, I found myself chuckling as I stood alone in the check out line, much to the dismay of my neighbors. Then, with relief, they realized that I was not a danger to them or their children….just some daffy old woman with her twenty cans of cat food. (They were on sale)
I had become a cliché!
What, you ask, has this to do with writing? Well, I guess I am emphasizing again to keep your ears and eyes, and particularly your minds open to the possibilities. I have found my stories in prison visiting rooms, my own relationships, reality dance TV shows, a plethora of childhood family stories, dating sites, a haunted lighthouse……..the list goes on and on.
And, who knows, maybe I was someone’s muse, an inspiration that day in the check out line. Perhaps the young man behind me will rush back to his studio and paint me, or the middle-aged woman in front will return home to write a short story about the elderly woman with the fiery red hair and her 20 cans of cat food. Wondering all the while, how many cats did I really have?
I was sitting, late one night, at a ferry landing, waiting and watching the boats ferry back and forth until it was my turn to board. Fog horns, misty fog, reflections on the black water, the screech of the gulls, and the silent hunting of the pelicans.
The wet air, the silence, the sound of a lone fog horn warning vessels of danger. The fog smearing everything I looked at… I was inspired to write poetry. But the scene could have inspired a murder mystery writer to write about a body, weighted down, being slipped into the water; or it could have inspired a romance writer to write about two lovers parting as the boat docked. Never to be together again. For me, it was poetry. Here is an excerpt of what came out of that black night……..
FOGGY NIGHT ©
The white orb, saturated with tidal flows
peers through the veil,
a ghost ship slips up the fog laden channel
Night gulls’ sing with strident cries
fog seeps in, the tide rolls out,
day is gone, the night creeps on
Trees, dressed in ebony, drift by
water glistens, injectable methandienone online in uk gold and wet
Night is soft and tender, edges blurred
damp seeps into cloth, hair, bone
Fog casts tents of light over the landing
Hunters of the sea know not day nor night
Fishers all, white feathers stark
against the night shadows
Palm trees, silhouetted against the ochre gauze,
brushes hardened with black paint……
I raced home as I had nothing to write with in the car. Opening my front door, I dropped my keys and purse onto a chair, tore off my coat as I sped down the hall to my studio. Waking up my computer, my fingers flew across the key board, lest I forget the words that were born in the night.
To read more click here for the book, "Butterflies and Bullets"
