Some Thoughts on the MOOC, Part I

Sounds like some sort of bizarre memoir, doesn’t it? A few weeks back, I believe I mentioned that I had signed up for a MOOC (i.e., Massive Open Online Course). The MOOC in this case was called The Power of the Pen: Writing Identities and Social Issues in Fiction and Nonfiction, offered through The University […]

Monday Musing: No Real Theme Edition (and no political commentary!)

Random bits and pieces from over the last week, because I’ve been too lazy/busy to get an actual post! -Penguins won the Stanley Cup last night. This was a good game, an entertaining series, and a lot more fun to watch in some ways without a dog in the fight. Congratulations to Pittsburgh on the […]

Public Writing

When I was a kid, I loved to draw. I drew pictures every chance I got, and I was told by some tat I was pretty good at it, though in hindsight, I think I heard that mostly from my mother, so maybe I wasn’t that good. Somewhere along the line, I stopped. When did […]

Story Cubes

Back at Christmas, I found a package under the tree for me from the Catbird that was the approximate size and shape of a deck of cards. When I picked it up, however, it was clear that it wasn’t a deck of cards. This felt a little heavier. Denser. And when I picked it up, […]

Monday Musing: Delayed Reaction Edition

Hidey-ho, folks, hope you’re all well. After enduring a week of cold, rain, and snow, the sun came out on Saturday afternoon, and it was positively balmy yesterday, mid-sixties and sunny. Daffodils are sprouting (though not quite flowering–yet), spring peepers are getting louder in the wetlands, swallows and kestrels are turning up on the telephone […]

Recommitting

Not long ago, I was cruising. I had submitted a new round of revisions to Agent Carrie on the RiP; not only was I making substantial headway on the WiP, I was actually liking it, too; and I was reading what felt like a ton of books. And then… Another round of suggestions has come […]

Did You Say–Gasp!–Outline?

Good freezing morning to you today! Not only is it one of the coldest mornings of the year so far (outdoor thermometer says it’s zero right about now), but my thermostat continues to prove that it needs to be replaced: for the third time in four nights, it failed to tell the boiler that heat […]

The Inner Crowd

Oh my, it’s getting crowded in here. Last week, I had a conversation with Agent Carrie about my last project. As you may (or may not; I can’t recall if I shared this or not) know, at the beginning of summer, said last project went out on submission. Generally speaking, I adhere to the policy […]

Who Is This For?

I may have mentioned in an earlier post that I was having trouble with my computer. Well, I’ve actually been having trouble with it for a couple of years, due to a damaged hard drive that, for some time, would cause complete system crashes–a rather inconvenient thing, to say the least. Those problems seemed to […]

Things My Characters Can’t Do

Good morning, all. A day late this week. I woke yesterday and started writing the post that was rattling around in my head all weekend, but I ran out of time. Figured I’d take care of it when I came home from work, as I have done on other occasions. That didn’t work, either. I’ve […]