Ray Bradbury has said: “I have never listened to anyone who criticized my taste in space travel, sideshows, or gorillas. When this occurs, I pack up my dinosaurs and leave the room.” “Creativity is a continual surprise.” “I’m not in control of my muse. My muse does all the work.” “Write a short story every […]
Mystery Authors Night at Towne Center Books
Mystery Authors Night at Town Center Books this evening featured Penny Warner, Sophie Littlefield, and Carole Price. Penny Warner, known for her Party Planning Mysteries,The Official Nancy Drew Handbook, and the Code Busters Club series, has a new book out called Death of a Crabby Cook. She writes under a pen name, Penny Pike for […]
Legends in your Story
One instructor of a writing class told the members to add a legend or myth to the story. One whose elements would reflect an aspect of the plot or character. In my novel, Norman in the Painting, I’ve tried to think of a myth that continues by word of mouth in the small town where […]
Women’s National Book Association Hosted AWWP
The Women’s National Book Association (WNBA) hosted The Afghan Women’s Writing Project (AWWP) last Saturday afternoon at the Temescal Branch Library in Oakland. A small, but enthusiastic group attended. The AWWP was founded in 2009 by American author and journalist, Marsha Hamilton. The project provides women writers in Afghanistan to join together in secure, online […]
National Novel Writing Month
National Novel Writing Month, known as NaNoWriMo, has started on November 1st. The goal is to write a 50,000-word novel in one month. Writers turn off the inner editor and put other projects on hold to be able to meet the word count by the ending date of 11:59 PM on November 30th. The novel […]
Fall Back and Extra Hour
The best thing about changing the time in fall, is that we can fool ourselves into thinking we have an extra hour. Let’s play along and choose what we will do with the extra hour? Read, write, do arts and crafts, watch TV longer, exercise, sleep, the list goes on. This morning I planned to […]
Write with the Monitor Off
Gary, one of the members in my Dublin writing class also is taking an on-line course with Jessica Barksdale, who was one of my instructors when I started writing years ago. I continue to go on her retreats in summer and she is still an inspiration. Jessica’s assignment that Gary shared with me was to […]