I need to cut my hair off. It’s long and heavy and ridiculous. But I don’t want to. Maybe long hair reminds me of being young… That’s the problem, see? I’m NOT young. I’m on the verge of forty, and the locks need to go before I “cross over.” So today I went back to … Continue reading
Tagged with about writing …
The fine art of a Party Cat battle
I’m not sure why I love this mural. It’s painted on a building along Seattle’s busway in the SoDo Urban Art Corridor. Maybe it’s the absurdity or the tension or the cat’s pink party hat or the red star on the girl’s pocket. There’s something about the look in that Girlie’s wild cartoon eyes that draws … Continue reading
One ticket, please, for that other Earth.
Offline. What a weird concept. It didn’t even exist back in the eighties when the most we could do to “disconnect” was take the phone off the hook. Which I never did. That was back when I was the social version of myself. Now I’m more a hermit version, but I still can’t totally hang … Continue reading
What I remember about summer camp: Sleeping in a covered wagon, kissing boys, and buying candy at the camp store.
When I was a kid we lived near a Bible Camp where I went to camp most summers. Aside from kissing boys and buying candy and falling in “kid love,” my most vivid memory is sleeping in a covered wagon at a camp called “Wagon Train.” Instead of cabins, we slept in cramped rows of … Continue reading
The Best Bad Book Titles EVER!
My friend Carrie Mesrobian is getting ready to have her first novel published. With a real publisher and everything. The book is YA and is going to be rad and she’s gonna be famous and all that. So yesterday, Carrie mentioned that she still doesn’t have a title for said forthcoming novel, which she’s just been calling … Continue reading
What I do when I’m depressed about writing
I just read my last post about creating quirky characters and groaned. Out loud. And made that hideous pig-snorting face reserved for people who have just done something stupid. What kind of an idiot makes herself into a cutsie fake character on a blog? To make matters worse, I read this passage by Charles Baxter … Continue reading
THOSE kind of people.
This week I’m reading Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower and, of course, now I’m thinking about how I like quirky, distinct characters in writing. Also I’m wondering how best to create my own characters like Charlie, the book’s first-person narrator. If you haven’t read the book, it’s worth the read. Unless you hated Catcher … Continue reading
Like a trip to the girl doctor that you video then post on YouTube.
That’s what it feels like, this writing insanity: exposing yourself, then begging people to distribute the evidence. The recent news that I’ve actually had my work accepted by a journal is bittersweet. I’m completely neurotic about what my bio should say, my head shot, if my mother will disown me for the content of the … Continue reading
It may be small, but it still counts as being published, right?
Five hours ago I received an email from Narrative magazine congratulating me on having my teensy story accepted for publication. I’m so happy that I feel like puking. Narrative magazine! How I love that publication. If you don’t already have the phone app, you really should, because it’s rad. So what, you might ask, would anyone want to read on a … Continue reading
A cat pee kind of day.
I got home late last night from a super rad evening of music and spoken word (thanks Gray Skies Reading Series) and noticed a sour, gross smell in my office as I was checking my email. I thought maybe it was my own sweat I was smelling, which has a disgusting cat pee aroma when … Continue reading
Chicago Was Better Than This Chair.
I know what the Bean is now. The Sears Tower is the tallest building in North America and has, I found out, been called the Willis Tower since 2009. Who knew? I do. Since I went to Chicago (for the first time!) this past week.I discovered art and architecture and facts about the Windy City, which … Continue reading
Why I heart my MFA Program
My last post was about my choice to pursue on MFA in creative writing. This one’s about which MFA program I chose and how I chose it. But first I’d like to echo the article Poets & Writers wrote on the topic this past fall and say that my decision to attend a program and … Continue reading
Why I Decided to Get an MFA
Two more months and I’ll have completed my first year in Pacific Lutheran University’s low-res MFA program in Creative Writing (fiction). Super excited. I often get asked about the program–What’s it like? Why’d you choose it? Why low-residency?–all the questions I asked when I was trying to decide 1.) if I should pursue an MFA, … Continue reading
Writing A Magical Story
This week I’ve been obsessively searching for the magical ingredients of successful story writing. Not like the obvious stuff that we always talk about–character, theme, plot, blah, blah. And please don’t suggest I go read Joseph Campbell. I’m talking about the magic! Secret somethings that pull you in and keep you reading (or watching or listening), … Continue reading
Extremely Incredibly Peculiar Child Narrators
As a rule I like kid narrators. I read a lot of them. An embarrassingly high percentage of the books I read are YA and most young adult novels feature a first-person narrator between the ages of 14 and 17. This week, I met sixteen-year-old Jacob whom I accompanied on a quest to solve the mystery of … Continue reading
Feeding the Plot-Starved
On the heels of consuming several smarty pants books, I’m hungry for plot candy. Now feed me a story with action, imagination, and maybe a little sweet romance, please. Don’t get me wrong. I love good character-driven literary fiction, too. I mean, I just finished a marvelously lyrical memoir by Sonja Livingston called Ghostbread. Beautiful, award-winning … Continue reading
Who needs writing groups?!
I made the transition from working 40+ hours a week as an executive manager in a public agency to becoming a full-time writer and graduate student over a period of several years. At one point during this transition, I was participating in three separate writing groups. Now I am frequently asked, “Were all those writing … Continue reading
A Catalog of Encounters: MariNaomi’s Graphic Novel
*big sigh* Monday begins. But my head is still back relaxing in my computer-free weekend in Sequim, Washington. In addition to celebrating (belatedly) the birthday of a family member, I caught up on some reading. Right before driving out on Friday night, I pulled from my “almost overdue” pile of library books MariNaomi’s Kiss & … Continue reading
Writing in “Public” (or Charles Dickens Did It)
I’m taking a break from the hideous story I’ve been posting so I can capture what it’s been like to write like an insane killer: serially. Okay, that’s dramatic. But writing a story in chunks and putting those drafty chunks out there for others to inspect feels as if I’m barfing on stage in my underwear. … Continue reading
