Wednesday Words: Fun with Phobias
I should state at the outset that if you have a phobia, it isn’t fun. I know someone who has ranidaphobia, and the one time a frog got into her house, it was not pleasant. Having said that, the names…
Monday Musings: What Does Your Car Say?
I recently noticed that a Twitter friend of mine (William G. Jones) mentioned in his brief bio: “I drive a ’57 Chevy.” On Twitter, you only get 160 characters to describe yourself, so you have to think hard about what…
Friday Fiction: You’re So Vein
I am not a vampire expert, but I feel reasonably well-versed on the literary phenomenon of blood-suckers and eternity seekers. It began with a late Saturday night reading of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which my college roommate interrupted by coming home…
Wednesday Words: Talking Texan
In a prior post, I said that I enjoy mimicking accents, though I am not fluent in any foreign languages. But I should qualify that some people think my native tongue of Texan is a foreign language. In fact, an…
Monday Musings: The Best Sport
If I had to write a personal ad, it might look something like this: Young-ish, attractive (enough) female seeks tall, broad-shouldered, thin, dark-haired male to provide intellectual companionship, enough financial security so that she can keep writing and raising her…
Friday Fiction: 4 Reasons Why Book Trumps Movie
You’ve been waiting for this moment for months! You have purchased your ticket, bought your popcorn, found a seat in the exact center of the theater, and made it through twenty minutes of previews. The film begins. Two hours later,…
Wednesday Words: Idioms, in a Nutshell
My son begs over and over to do something that I have repeatedly explained is SO NOT going to happen. Still, he’s in my face with the persistence of a severe case of hiccups and reasoning he’s spent more time…
Monday Musings: Gently Prodded
Once you finish your first novel, you think, “Hey, I’m a writer! I can do this!” And you bask in that warm sunshine for a while, getting a nice tan and feeling pretty darn good about yourself. Until you start…
Bonus Post: Flash Fiction
Flash Fiction is a style of writing for extreme brevity. I found a great Flash Fiction challenge posted by fellow author Haley Whitehall. Here are the rules of the challenge, with a May 1 deadline: You must start your story…
Friday Fiction: How Many Pages to the Tootsie Roll Center?
I was one of those honor roll high school students who read every book assigned in English class. Recommend a good book to me, and I’m all over it! I fondly recall reading classics like To Kill a Mockingbird…