Broken? Yes… and hampering my writing.   But tragedy + time = comedy so there will be some funny stories soon.      
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It’s difficult to describe my extreme reaction to some descriptive words. When the phrase “sentimental journey” is applied to a work of fiction I run the other way. All the gentle, corny, and tender words in an ad for a book, a film summary, or an email with a discount coupon for theater tickets, open up my fear of maudlin, schmaltzy, mawkish—and most of all—heartwarming, entertainment. It’s not that I don’t cry at the sad parts. My tears flow easily at sad/sweet/bittersweet moments, but when the overall tone is “heartwarming” I head in the other direction. I can’t remember feeling
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I’ve got a story in a new anthology—The Bite Anthology Book 1. The editors are planning a series of short fiction collections to be published on a regular basis. It’s an ambitious plan and I like it. My story is in good company, surrounded by strangers from other styles & genres. Connor and Cody, the editors, tell me that future editions with be knitted together with themes. For the first book, they chose an eclectic mix. An anthology is like a cocktail party. The stories mingle with strangers. If a reader chooses to go directly from story-to-story they encounter the
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I had a fascinating conversation with another writer, Kirsten Weiss author of ‘At Wits’ End’ ‘Of Mice and Mechanicals’ ‘Pressed to Death’ and ‘The Mannequin Offensive’ (among others) and I came away from our chat with renewed energy. I needed that boost. It’s the feeling of “powering through” until you reach THE END that had been sadly lacking in my fiction writing life. I’ve been managing to get in gear for the few summertime freelance assignments that crossed my desk, but fiction was flagging. I needed to get back to my usual confidence. Or maybe, I needed to reignite the
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People often talk about reinventing themselves. On a practical level changing careers, starting a family, retiring, going back to school, and many other common—if life-changing—experiences are forms of reinvention. Women seem especially adept at reinvention. Perhaps it’s just that traditionally women lead lives with many moving parts and the work/career part is periodically in flux? Whatever the reason, I’ve observed that most of my women friends and family have undergone one, two or more reinventions in their work life. I’ve known more than a few men who’ve gone through a purposeful career reinvention, but not a chain of metamorphoses. The
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No, I’m not planning a memoir. I like memoirs and have read many, but I don’t think that a memoir (or autobiography) is the only way a writer tells her story. The mixing & melding of fiction & fact, memory & dream, daydreams & nightmares, aspirations & fears, that find their way into fiction have to start someplace and THAT is inside the writer’s imagination, stored away in a library of story ideas. My library does not have a Dewey Decimal System. The stories are jumbled up, shaking loose like the paper snowflakes in a souvenir globe, and falling in
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Faces speak without words. Sometimes facial expressions contradict spoken words. Dialog can be at odds with what a character thinks or feels and this is tough on the writer as we’re juggling the point-of-view of the story versus the character’s individual take on the action. That little grimace before answering a question, the squint before mentioning a particular name, and sad eyes that don’t match a broad smile and happy words, add layers to all sorts of communications. I spent some time at the Metropolitan Museum of Art checking out the facial expressions in art. The larger than life stories
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