“Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.” ~ Anna Quindlen
Thought for the Day: "Try to get your characters into interesting trouble. Allow your characters to misbehave. Let them stay out after 11." ~ Charles Baxter ~ Gifts for My Writer Friends: Humor in kids’ stories is always a great element to add. HERE is a terrific post by John Bladek on Adding Humor to… Continue reading THE ABILENE KID: DEAD MAN’S HAND — Review
Thought for the Day: "Remember: Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations. Plot is observed after the fact rather than before. It cannot precede action. It is the chart that remains when an action is through. That is all Plot… Continue reading BAD BADGER: A LOVE STORY — Review & Giveaway
Thought for the Day: "Everything I do is because of writing. If I go for a walk, it's because I'm thinking of writing. I go look at flowers, I go look at the garden, I go look at a museum, but it's all coming back to writing." ~ Jamaica Kincaid ~ Gifts for My Writer… Continue reading ON A WING AND A TEAR — Review
Thought for the Day: "If writing is thinking and discovery and selection and order and meaning, it is also awe and reverence and mystery and magic." ~ Toni Morrison ~ Gifts for My Writer Friends: Voice, voice, voice—that elusive characteristic of writing comes up so often. HERE is an excellent post from Lydia Netzer with… Continue reading ELSETIME — Review & Giveaway
Thought for the Day: A writer needs three things: experience, observation, and imagination, any two of which, at times any one of which, can supply the lack of the others.~ William Faulkner ~ Gifts for My Writer Friends: It never hurts to have a little refresher on punctuation. I know I find them useful. HERE… Continue reading THE WITCHING WIND — Review
Thought for the Day: "The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart." ~ Maya Angelou ~ Gifts for My Writer Friends: Sarah Allen on Sarah’s Smorgasbord has such an entertaining and useful post HERE on Writing a Satisfying Self-Destructive Villain.… Continue reading THE THINGS WE MISS — Review
Thought for the Day: "Never forget that writing is as close as we get to keeping a hold on the thousand and one things—childhood, certainties, cities, doubts, dreams, instants, phrases, parents, loves—that go on slipping, like sand, through our fingers." ~ Salman Rushdie ~ Gifts for My Writer Friends: Many years ago, I was in… Continue reading THE HOTEL BALZAAR — Review
Thought for the Day: "'I don't know where to start,' one [writing student] will wail. Start with your childhood, I tell them. Plug your nose and jump in, and write down all your memories as truthfully as you can. Flannery O'Connor said that anyone who has survived childhood has enough material to write for the… Continue reading THE PUPPETS OF SPELHORST — Review
Thought for the Day: "When you first start writing -- and I think it's true for a lot of beginning writers -- you're scared to death that if you don't get that sentence right that minute it's never going to show up again. And it isn't. But it doesn't matter -- another one will, and… Continue reading THE SECRET LIBRARY — Review & Giveaway
Thought for the Day: “Writing a novel is like a one-armed man trying to hammer together a chicken coop in a hurricane.”~ William Faulkner ~ Gifts for My Writer Friends: Marsh Cassady wrote a great article HERE for the Institute of Writing with 12 Writing Tips for Building Convincing Characters. I try really hard to… Continue reading THE MAGICIAN’S ELEPHANT — Review & Giveaway
Rosi Hollinbeck 