I arrived on Buenos Aires on Friday and I didn’t turn on my computer. Saturday came and went, by Sunday I thought it was a good idea to take the weekend off, and by Monday I accepted that I needed to travel away from my computer. We’re still friends! My constant companion and I just need a break. Is this good? YES! It’s Tuesday morning and I’ve already written the first drafts of two short stories. Writing without the computer? Yup! Writing in a notebook with my notoriously bad handwriting, inability to spell, and lacking the useful/time suck pauses to
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Reading Adventures
I’m posting this and then getting on a plane! Reading is a big part of my vacation experience. On my final pre-Kindle trip I visited Berlin and ran through my entire stack of paperback mysteries BEFORE it was time to head home. I went to the English language section of a big discount bookstore and purchased a mystery with a historical setting. I remember reading the first few chapters in my bed in a crazy, little, hotel on Hermann Platz. I forced myself not to read too many pages because I wanted to make sure I had most of the
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Reader Expectations
A literary phenomenon, a best-seller, an influential non-fiction book, the latest in a successful mystery series, the breakout novel that overcomes the limits of genres—media buzz, reputation, and hype, all feed and manipulate a reader’s expectations. Price is a factor, too. Do you read a $2.99 indie novel with the same expectations as the $15.99 e-book edition put out by a major, conventional publisher? Probably not. Many books are crowding my Kindle library. It grows particularly FAT before I travel, as I feed it extra books for long plane rides, jet lag, and plenty of leisure time reading. So right
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Travel Writing & Writing When Traveling
I’ve yet to try travel writing—guidebooks, travel essays, insightful treatise on wonderful places, or handy hints about staying out of trouble in exotic destinations—but I do write when I travel. Next week I’ll be on a plane to Argentina. I plan to dance Tango, eat steak, visit the port of La Boca, check out a few museums in Buenos Aires, drink lots of wine, and visit the famous falls in Iguazu. I’ve been to BA before, but this will be my first trip to one of the natural wonders of Latin America. I’m looking forward to a new, different, and
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Writers & Money
For a period of years I’ve made a modest living as a freelance writer. Before that, I was in advertising where I wrote, did a great deal of client contact, pitched new business, and dealt with all the non-creative aspects of a boutique ad agency. Still, the tiny bits of income generated by my fiction are always something to celebrate. Even if I can measure the dollar figures in cups of coffee, it’s still a validation of my creative work. I’m not complaining. I know that I’m fortunate in being able to spend time & energy on writing that is
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Seductive Pseudo Science
Eat this and never suffer from heart disease—the numbers in our small study are conclusive. Drink that and prevent cancer—we know what your doctor won’t tell you. Take this supplement and feel younger—it’s a Hollywood secret. Use this scientifically proven face cream and your wrinkles will vanish in days. Believe and manifest the reality you want to live. Control your body on a cellular level and live like a king… The lure of pseudo science is seductive. Newsfeeds on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media are filled with new “discoveries” and “ancient remedies” that sound like magic, because they are
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I’m BACK!
I’ve been writing in fits & starts, lacking my usual fluidity & confidence. My freelance work hasn’t been a problem and blogging—with its relatively short posts—has been OK, too. But my creative self has been playing hide & seek with my keyboard. Things finally clicked back into gear and I wrote an entire story in a couple of days. Start to finish, complete with a second draft. I’m BACK! Was it writer’s block? Not really. It was more like part of my brain went AWOL. Stories were stirring, but stalling in the path between imagination and computer keyboard. There is
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Re-Writing is Writing
I was asked to submit a story to an anthology and I was flattered. That is until the panic kicked in. There were no genre, subject, or style requirements, but there was a tight deadline and minimum/maximum word counts. Most of my short stories fall short—under the required minimum of 5000 words. Most, but not all of them, so I decided to resurrect a story I wrote in 2013. That’s where copyediting, deeper editing, and re-writing came into the picture. Re-working an existing manuscript is writing. It doesn’t feel like writing, but it’s an essential part of the process. The
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