Random Musings

Category: writing

  • Do what, now?

    We were talking in the car the other, as we are wont to do. Topics varied, as they do. And Nic says, “I went there on a school holiday once. We went for a walk.” (Referring to a place sign we’d just passed.) I couldn’t and can’t get that out…

  • The beauty of breathing

    Yes, I know. Breathing is one of those necessary things, something we must do in order to be considered alive. Being able to do it doesn’t make you all that special. But it’s also something we don’t notice until it goes wrong. Because it’s automatic, because it’s one of those…

  • A personal bugbear rant

    You pick up a hammer and a nail, and you pound that nail into a board. Are you a carpenter? You make a toolbox in high school. Are you a carpenter now? You make a bed frame. It doesn’t fall apart. How about now? Would you advertise as a carpenter?…

  • Staying focused

    Let’s start the new year talking about writing. I can’t tell you the number of conversations I’ve had that start with this: “I’ve got a great idea for a book…” And then we head into ten minutes of  ‘and then K jumps into a lake, but then S has a…

  • Curtain call

    2019 has had its curtain call. It’s been a year of political drama, of travel, of decisions. Of family and friendships both gained and lost. We went to Italy three times, and to Texas, New Orleans, and Provincetown. And Spain. And Amsterdam. It’s been an amazing year of adventure. And…

  • Because you’re supposed to tell people you do this thing…

    I hope you don’t mind terribly, but I’m going to do a little bit of end of year self-promotion. It’s not in my nature, and I always want to duck and hide when I have to do it, but being an author in a digital age means actually telling people…

  • Where stories are born

    We’re walking along the damp, shiny, puddle-laden streets of Venice, trying not to stumble or get hit by one of the trillions of umbrellas moving to and fro down the narrow walkways. We stop at a shop window in an alley barely big enough to stand side by side, and…

  • Cinnamon grateful

    My last post was on the first of November, about the behind the scenes creation of books. Today is the thirtieth, and I’m unsure what to say in only my second blog of the month. It’s been a tough month in a lot of ways. Broken bones, illness, the black…

  • Creation and nerd references

    How often have you, as a reader, thought about the world behind the book? The aspect of creation? Do you enjoy meeting authors? How important is it to you that you have some inkling of who the author is behind the books you enjoy? I think, in this world of…

  • Not a joke

    So, we saw Joker yesterday. I went in expecting a typical comic book film filled with action and larger than life characters. What I got, though, wasn’t that. What I got was a disturbing, deeply troubling movie about a man who needed help in the face of a cruel, careless…