Category: My Words, Your Words, Their Words

What am I writing? What am I hearing? What am I reading? All the words flowing through my life are flowing through this category.

The Novel: Which Novel?

So...I kind of have a reputation for being a starter and not a finisher, especially when it comes to writing. I lack the ability to resist the next bright, shiny thing. I have a lot of ideas that I get excited about, and I have a hard time sticking with previous projects, making revisions, and … Continue reading The Novel: Which Novel? →

Say What? Edition 9: A Motley Collection

I've been keeping lists of weird things about English for a while. And by keeping lists, I mean that I write down one thing I think of and tell myself I should look for similar irregularities and fill the list so I can blog about the topic, but I never do. So, I'm cleaning out … Continue reading Say What? Edition 9: A Motley Collection →

The Novel: Which Critiques (Don’t) Matter

I now have a complete manuscript of my debut novel, a contemporary young adult story. Complete, of course, means that I still have another full edit to do over the summer...and then probably another one after I start to query in the fall. My first task is to incorporate the remaining comments I have from … Continue reading The Novel: Which Critiques (Don’t) Matter →

The Novel: To Query or Not to Query

As this entry posts to my blog, I am wrapping up my third year at the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers retreat. This is a wonderful annual event held at a Franciscan Retreat Center in Colorado Springs. The center is in the perfect location, easily accessible from Boulder but far enough that I really do feel like … Continue reading The Novel: To Query or Not to Query →

The End of Year Book Report (#4)

July through December 2018   Title: Still Alice Author: Lisa Genova Date Finished: 7/6  Finished: Yes Format: Kindle Ranking Out of 10: 5  Notes: I did not enjoy the style of writing. It felt pedantic, like a parable. The story was good but it was too obviously written to inform readers about a condition rather than letting the readers enjoy a novel … Continue reading The End of Year Book Report (#4) →

The Novel: Half A Novel And Proud of It

I'm back from an intense month of novel writing. How did I do on the distraction front? I only logged in to Facebook three times, and each time was for a specific purpose, such as updating my notification settings to stop getting text messages from Facebook about photos my friends were posting. They were trying … Continue reading The Novel: Half A Novel And Proud of It →

Say What? Edition 8: When Native Speakers Sound Like They Aren’t

My roommate my first year in Russia told me that English was an easy language to start speaking and make yourself decently understood but near impossible to master because of all the idioms, nuance, unexpected pronunciations, and multiple ways of saying everything. No matter how long you speak it, you're always going to encounter something … Continue reading Say What? Edition 8: When Native Speakers Sound Like They Aren’t →

Say What? Edition 7: More Than Words

No, this post is not an ode to that old Extreme song, although it's still a great one! The post is a little bit about "code switching," I started hearing about everywhere a few years ago. Code switching refers to the verbal portion of the many personas we all have. The words we choose, the way … Continue reading Say What? Edition 7: More Than Words →