Special Occasions By Maggie Toussaint As a December birthday, I spent my entire childhood wishing my birthday was in the summer like my brother and sister’s. For one thing, they didn’t get shorted on presents because “Christmas is coming soon.” They got to go swimming and eat watermelon at their June birthday parties. I did […]
Does Summer Change Your Reading Habits? By Terry Odell When I lived in Florida, summer (for me) was the time to stay inside and take advantage of the air conditioning. I used to liken it to being snowed in. Both conditions lend themselves to more time to read. Summer can be a time to relax […]
That’s for the birds by James M Jackson I am a reasonably curious person, which can be a bad thing when I am doing research for a novel. I can easily start gathering information about why mowed grass smells so nice and end up engrossed in reading about the negative effect of warmer oceans on […]
Cataloguing Your Books by Nancy J. Cohen Do you mark the books you read? I never used to do so, and I easily lost track of which books I’d read. I have tons of books filling my shelves, and I may or may not have already read most of them. Somewhere along the way, I […]
Getting Lost in a Book by Karla Brandenburg Because I work a “day job,” I often find myself juggling time, scheduling what free moments I have available. Except during “busy season.” During busy season, my job doesn’t always allow for extras. It’s a hectic time of year that demands more time, more focus and more […]
Creativity By Tina Whittle One of the most common questions I get asked during interviews is when I started being a writer. It’s also one of the hardest questions to answer. Technically, I’ve been a writer as long as I’ve been writing. But I didn’t know I was a writer – didn’t really understand what […]
Ripped from the headlines by Maggie Toussaint Usually when you think of stories ripped from the headlines of newspapers, you think of lurid crimes, of things that could never happen in your town or to your family. I was searching for an idea for a novella and I kept coming back to something that happened […]
Authors are Readers, Too Terry Odell Most of the time, writers sit in rooms all by themselves working on their manuscripts. Or working on a blog post, or some marketing chore, or checking in with social media. It’s usually a solitary work environment. Solitary, not lonely, though, because we have our characters and they’re usually […]
Lists By James M Jackson I am a list-maker. Regardless of whether I became one through genes or social training, I owe this trait to my father. Lists come in two forms: the recording (events, transactions, possessions) and the “to do” list or check list. Each Saturday morning, my father recorded the value of each […]
Trolls – Darling or Dangerous? Nancy J. Cohen Trolls come in varied flavors. They can be cute little guys like these dolls from my childhood. Would you believe I still have my collection? These have happy faces and hair you want to pet. Then there are ugly trolls from Norse mythology. I used these mythical […]
