More Club Revelations, and Why Everyone Should Play the Uke

The Sydney short story saga continues! This week’s chunk of Club Revelations, the Sydney Brennan short story I’ve been posting in rough form, can be read here. Remember, you can read it from the beginning or skip ahead to Part 3 if you’ve been keeping up. At this rate, it will probably run to about eight parts, but no guarantees—I might get crazy one week and just post it all. If you read last week’s blog post, you’ll know my husband and I were looking forward to seeing Jake Shimabukuro perform (and you may still have The Bohemian Rhapsody stuck Read more…

More of Sydney’s Short Story, and Something to Make You Smile

Last week, I shared the first couple of pages of a work in progress, the Sydney Brennan short story Club Revelations. It’s funny—the day I posted it, I had a realization about what wasn’t working with it. (Other than it’s a short story, and I don’t do short well.) Maybe there’s some magical editing energy in cyberspace. I’ve got some more changes to make, but I’m going to continue posting rough story chunks on this dedicated page on my website every week. This week’s chunk is much longer than the previous one. I’ve set it up so you can read from Read more…

The Writer’s Environs: What Plants Engulf Your Structures?

Here’s the second installment in a series I started a while back and forgot about—I mean, hadn’t yet returned to: The Writer’s Environs. The idea is to reflect on the places we live, both the commonalities and the things that make each piece of the world unique. In the first installment, I asked, What crosses the road? (Yes, pigs are still crossing our road; it’s been a very heavy pig season.) The question this week: Which plants are most likely to take over the world? Anyone who’s lived or spent any time in the South is familiar with the apocryphal Read more…

Pity the Writer’s Heavily Laden Nightstand: Part I–Brain Canines

I’m generally a fiction reader, but I’ve been hitting the nonfiction hard lately. I go through phases where I dip into half a dozen or so different books scattered around the house. A few hardcovers and an ereader will be stacked on my nightstand (along with a couple of notebooks, and pens, and receipts, and whatever else hasn’t fallen off yet). No more than one book from the “currently reading” pile will be fiction; I am constitutionally incapable of reading more than one fiction book at a time. The nonfiction books fall into subject clusters—often a book or two about writing, and the Read more…

Okay, So I May Be More Than a Little Stitious…

You may remember, from when the lava stopped short of engulfing Pahoa or from the cover reveal for the previous book, that I’m not Super Stitious, but I am a Little Stitious. (I’m not a fan of The Office, but I still love that mug). Except I’m starting to think I’m more than a Little Stitious. Writers have a reputation as a superstitious lot. Because I had nothing else to do (like write this blog post) I looked up this fun list of writer superstitions (along with a gif of the Michael Scott quote). Some of the rituals of yore—number of/lucky Read more…