Hey Folks, Note: This post was originally scheduled for 5/20/2013. It didn’t post to MailChimp, so I’m posting it again now. I’ve revised the original post so it’s up to date. A correspondent on a ListServ I used to attend regularly wrote that she was searching for the name of “a bit of editing software that would highlight all adverbs if you typed search adverbs or all verbs if you typed search verbs.” Hackles rose on … Read more
Y’know, I ain’t sure how it happened, really. I swear, Bobby and me was just talkin’ when some lady screamed. ‘Least it sounded like a lady. But I didn’t see her or nothin’. Anyways, that screamin’, that made me look around right quick. So I did. An’ I stared ‘cause I couldn’t believe it myself. Some maniac’s bearin’ down on me in a big ol’ truck. A truck! Here, y’know? An’ I yelled, “Hey, what the … Read more
Hi Folks, Note: This post was originally scheduled for 5/12/2013. It didn’t post to MailChimp, so I’m posting it again now. I’ve revised the original post so it’s up to date. Odd… I think I’ve never written a post on Creating Realistic Characters. I taught a seminar on the subject [in May 2013] in Bisbee, and I taught the same seminar in Tucson in February. Attendance was low on that one—meaning the market’s saturated—so I probably … Read more
Early on Friday morning, Johnny Flynn puffed on a cigar and eyed the Facebook entry. His daughter had written, “Man, I wish it was Saturday.” As he watched, his son wrote a response. “I just wish it was 5:30 Friday afternoon. LOL.” Johnny grinned and shook his head. Ah well. He really should leave such things alone. Stay out of the conversations fueled by youth. What harm would it do to let the young wish away … Read more
Hi Folks, Note: This post was originally scheduled for 4/10/2013. It didn’t post to MailChimp, so I’m posting it again now. I’ve revised the original post so it’s up to date. I think all of us can agree that being a writer is a wonderful, if sometimes exasperating, predicament. For writers, especially if we must pursue a day job in order to enable our writing habit, there really is nothing like making the time to sit … Read more
Well. That was uncomfortable at best. All of them gathering around my bed to see me off. Uncomfortable and prolonged, like a slow-acting poison. For one thing, their being here forces me to look at them. Not that I don’t want to look at them. Some are the issue of my loins, after all. But their being here and my being forced to look at them also brings into my periphery that damned countdown machine with … Read more
Hi Folks, This morning as I conducted some routine maintenance on my website, I got curious. I checked the “Uncategorized” posts. Those marked Uncategorized were not sent to any list by MailChimp. Not even the Pro Writers blog, for which I wrote them. I found forty-three such posts, all of which should have gone to the Pro Writers list. So I’m beginning the arduous process of perusing, updating and rescheduling those posts. Those that are still … Read more
In the wings, the speaker adjusted the almost invisible headset. Only the thin, fleshtone-painted bit of plastic that held the fleshtone-painted mic in position near the corner of her mouth was visible at all. She glanced down, smoothed her pantsuit, and waited as the band completed the final strains of their third song. It was lively and upbeat, a musical call to action. A disembodied voice reminiscent of a ring announcer introducing a much-anticipated heavyweight fight … Read more