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Creating is self-care
Sometimes life kicks you in the butt. Then it kicks you when you’re down. Then it curb-stomps you into a bloody pulp and leaves you twitching in the gutter. My mother passed away Saturday morning. The woman who birthed me, loved me, taught me, corrected me, protected me, nurtured me, encouraged me. That woman is gone. Her passing was not sudden. It was not unexpected. Dementia had stolen most of who she was, so her death wasn’t even a tragedy. It was a mercy. But it hurts like hell. That sucks, you say, but first Wednesday is supposed to be the day we IWSG types write words of encouragement to…
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Learn to Write Fiction 1: Get Started
I explained in my last post why I didn’t start writing fiction till my late 40s. Sometimes I think my life’s motto should be, Better Late than Never. Anyway, once I decided to give this whole making-up-stories thing a try, I had to figure out how to get started. Just put some words on the page? Well, OK, but as I said in my last post, creative writing is a craft. And crafts have to be learned. So, how does one learn to write a novel? Especially if one has a day job and doesn’t want to spend a couple of years and many thousands of dollars earning an MFA?…
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Talent is overrated
This is my first ever post for the Insecure Writers Support Group Blog Hop. On the first Wednesday of each month, participants, “Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling.” Today I’ll use this opportunity to talk about why I didn’t start writing fiction till my late 40s, even though I’d always dreamed of doing so. I’ve been a bookworm since forever. I still remember one Saturday afternoon when I was about 6 or 7, and my mother was too busy to stop right.that.minute and read me The Wizard of Oz for the 472nd…
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Monthly reading list: August 2019
Like most writers, I’m a voracious reader. I consume books like an unsupervised 7-year-old consumes Pop Tarts. I read all kinds of books and in all kinds of formats (unlike my Pop Tart habit. There is only one kind of Pop Tart worth eating–Brown Sugar Cinnamon. Fight me.) I’m also one of those nerdy people who is highly motivated by measurements, so I do the Goodreads Reading Challenge every year. I just logged in to view the list of books I read in August and was horrified to find that I’m 2 books behind my annual goal. I guess I know what I’m doing for the rest of today. The…
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Same blog, new focus
Welcome to my revamped blog! New and improved! Get it while it lasts! OK, seriously… For those who don’t know, I’ve been teaching myself how to write fiction since 2014. I’m happy to report that after 5 years of significant effort, I suck a little less than I did when I started. I’m working on what I hope will be the last round of revisions before I send my newborn novel out to beta readers. (It’s a time travel romance – did you know that’s a genre now? Thanks, Outlander!) According to various Writing Experts, now is the time I should be building an online presence and readership, so… Rather…
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Christmas with Mom
The Crum family Christmas spirit this year could best be summed up with a hearty, “Bah, humbug.” One of our dearest friends died this year, Tony is recovering from his fourth major surgery in less than two years, and my mother is in the late stages of dementia, meaning this will probably be her last Christmas. Our decorating consisted of buying a tiny live tree from Home Depot that I’m pretty sure is mostly dead now. Our shopping consisted of replacing the refrigerator that died right after Thanksgiving, along with the microwave that died a week later. So it’s Christmas, and we aren’t feeling it. I plan to cook our…
Janet Alcorn
Suspense | Horror | Romance
