As most of you know, I’ve been battling workman’s comp to get medical stuff done. People gripe about dealing with insurance. Wait until you get to deal with the government version of insurance. The accident was on January 12. WC confirmed one knee, back, shoulders and neck. They later added the other knee after it…

Some friends and I were discussing FAR RIDER when I started breaking it down into POV plotlines. Beth reminded me, each important person needs to be the hero of their story. Even the villains need to be heroes. They have some sort of “code” they live by. Now, there are definitely rule breakers, but for…

Writing Bodies I started writing to save my sanity.  I was used to having a creative outlet as a graduate student and then as a teacher.  As an at-home mom of two kids under the age of four, I needed something more than crayons. I wrote.  I wrote sporadically at first, and randomly, with no…

If you belong to any kind of social media, a writer’s group, a library, a school or even know a writer, you’ve probably seen J.K. Rowling’s spreadsheet page from Order of the Phoenix about 32,941 times. In case you missed it, I’ll show it again. It made me think of a few things. Those messy…

Kari Dell was discussing Beach, ND this morning and it reminded me of odd names for towns. Tarzan, Texas was named after the fictional character. So the story goes, a man in what is now Tarzan wanted to incorporate the community and get a post office, but every name he came up with was already…

How to approach an agent? It’s a question that’s puzzled writers probably since there have been agents and writers. There’s the personal pitch in the office sweetened by an awesome gift. While this approach has apparently worked in some situations, and your mileage may vary according to how nice the rug is and how good…

I’m getting to the end of the plotline dissections. As I’ve said before, when a person gets a revision letter from an agent, I think the first thing they or at least I wanted to do was rush through the manuscript and make obvious changes. It’s done! Whee! Zip it back to the agent. That…