The Doubting Writer Blog
It is Up to Us
Yesterday, I attended the rally in Albany. Call it Indivisible, or 50501, or No Kings, or Hands Off, or whatever you want to call it, the event was a huge success. I’m not good at estimating crowd size and I
Reaction Pieces
Been a while, hasn’t it? A good thing I did in 2024 was to rejoin a writer’s group. It took a while. One of my friends from the first writers’ group I was emailed me way back in spring of
A Story in Reverse
Life in Trump’s America Last night, when things were looking a little grim but before it got to the “Oh, hey, 2016, how’ve you been?” stage, The Magpie made a point of firmly shutting the door between the office and
July 4, 2024
In 1973, ITV network in Britain aired the documentary, The World at War, a 26-hour look at events on the battlefield and the impacts of the war on nations as a whole as well as the individuals who fought or
Reading Roundup, 2023 (Part III)
Howdy, folks, and happy new year! Funny, I feel like we usually see “New Year” capitalized, and yet I don’t know that it should be. Hmm. Anyway, we had a good holiday season, and I’m fortunate to have accrued enough
The Statement
It’s done. Not NaNoWriMo, because I skipped it once again. As we came ever closer toward this fabled month I considered NaNo. It’s been a few years since I’ve done one and I actually had a couple of things that
The Reading List 2023, Part II
Well, somehow nearly three months have gone by since my last post. As usual, I didn’t intend this. As usual, I will promise to post more frequently. Also as usual, I can’t guarantee I will follow through on that promise.
The Reading List 2023, Part I
Long-time readers of this blog may remember my sharing of my reading list. Why share my reading list? Well, I figure if anyone’s actually reading me, they may be interested in what I read. Also, maybe you’ll find something here
The Thicket
About a month ago, maybe two, I don’t quite recall, I started working on something new. It came about in an odd way for me, because I knew three things about it before I had set a single word to
Pulling the Thread
Last year I got a t-shirt for volunteering at an event sponsored by our local Soil & Water Conservation District. I liked the shirt: it fit me nicely and it has a nice logo. It also had a loose thread
Flexing the Muscle
First, let’s be clear about one thing: I know that the brain is not a muscle. The physical brain is a collection of neurons, glial cells and blood cells, wrapped in a membrane full of fluid. It is not a
Pound, Pound, Pound
Yesterday morning I did something that I a) thought I would do several weeks ago, and b) thought I might never do: I typed ‘###’ at the end of my WiP. In case you don’t know, ‘###’ is a fancy
Too Many Twists?
I just finished a well-regarded thriller/horror book. I cracked it open a few days ago with great anticipation. When I joined Twitter and started engaging in that world, this author started popping up everywhere, and I’ve been meaning to get
Finished, and Not-so-finished
Happy 2023. When I started thinking in earnest of this post to wrap up 2022 and set up 2023, I was going to start by saying the year ended a lot like it began, with me working on revisions of
Giving Thanks
Yesterday, I had the great pleasure of doing something I haven’t done at least since a run of glorious Indian Summer (apologies for the phrase, I just don’t know what to call it now) days in October: I woke up
Missing in Action
I’m writing very off-the-cuff today. Normally, when I write these blog posts I draft them in a Word document and edit them heavily, often over several hours or days. However, life has been such that even when I have an
Of Dogs and Tricks
When our departed and much-beloved German shepherd, Cassie was well into her middle age, she did something “old dogs” are reputedly unable to do: she learned a new trick. We discovered this trick on a Thanksgiving Day. After the meal,
Launched!
I do not know why it has been so hard to write this post. Really, it should be the easiest one ever: When I woke up on Wednesday, August 24, Powerless was no longer on pre-order. Friends reported having downloaded
Culmination point
In a few days, I will officially join the ranks of the published. I will go from being a writer to being an author. For all intents and purposes, I already am. I have held Powerless the novel in my
The Story of Powerless, Part II
First off, let me say that Powerless releases in three weeks–holy crap! If you want to preorder, check the main page to links to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. Last time I wrote on this subject I talked about the
Ordinary People
Well, it’s been a couple of weeks, whew. If you missed me, I spent the last week co-leading a five-day, four-night watershed education workshop for a group of teachers. It was a lot of fun, and a lot of work,
The Next Thing
When I left off the original iteration of this blog four years ago, I had just completed and readied for query a manuscript that I loved (and still do). I sent a dozen or so queries off into the world
It’s Been A Week
Literally, it’s been a week since my last post and it feels like a lot has been happening, yet it also feels like nothing has been happening. It’s also “been a week” in the figurative sense since my last post,
The Last Refuge
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent Isaac Asimov, Foundation I read the above quote many, many years ago. While I don’t remember much about the book itself, that quote has always stuck with me, and I think of
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