The Reading List (Part I)

As I type this, my heat is running and I can hear the sound of a plow scraping along the county road nearby–April is always exciting in upstate New York! We’re typically about a month behind on the onset of warm weather here (and, sadly, about a month ahead on the onset of autumn and […]

Distraction

I must have been rather cranky last week. Being tired, I guess, can do that to you. In addition to being somewhat worn out from all the driving, I think maybe I was just a little under the weather, as well. Aside from dragging my butt around work and the house all week, I found […]

Second Chances

I’ve used this before. So sue me. Driving, it seems, takes a lot more out of me than it used to. So, I’m curious: as a reader, do you give authors a second chance? If you read a book by someone, and you think it’s awful, are you willing to read something else by that […]

Three Quotes

Three quotes from over the weekend: “What caused the protests at Trump’s rally is a candidate that has promoted hatred and division against Latinos, Muslims, women, and people with disabilities, and his birther attacks against the legitimacy of President Obama. What caused the violence at Trump’s rally is a campaign whose words and actions have […]

Time to Turn the Radio Back On

There was a time when, upon entering the car, the first thing I’d do is to turn the radio on. Or the tape deck. Or the CD player. What I chose to listen to depended very much on where I was and what I was doing. When I get within range of New York City, […]

Monday Musing

The blear is strong in me this morning. I woke up in the dead of night–or morning, technically. 3:22, to be exact. I’m not sure what woke me up: too hot, too cold, fingers falling asleep, spider running across my face, who knows? But I was sure, for just a few seconds, that it was […]

I Wish I’d Written That

I can’t remember if I’ve relayed this story before, or used this title in a post before. If I have to either (or both), forgive me, the old brain ain’t what it used to be. A few years back, the Magpie’s English class did a big project. The teacher partnered with the head of a […]

On Writing Contests

Back when I had my “State of the State” phone call with Agent Carrie back in January of 2015, one of the things she suggested I do with my manuscript was enter it into a contest or two. The idea being that it gets the manuscript out there and that, if it won or got […]

Super (Sneaky) Advertising

Crap, here I am, stuck again. Some time yesterday I had an idea for a blog post, one that was actually about writing. Nothing huge, mind you. The way I envisioned it, it would be short and sweet, a couple of paragraphs at best. I don’t know what I was doing when it came into […]

Monday Musing

Last week was one of those weeks that nearly ate my brain. We had a big grant application due on Friday that kept me in the office for 22 combined hours on Wednesday and Thursday, and took up almost all of my other time in the office. Despite that, I actually managed to draft a […]