I haven’t been to a writing conference in years. Years and years. Well, until this past Saturday when I attended the first one sponsored by the newly formed ACFW Great Lakes Chapter. I loved meeting other Michigan writers. And I came away encouraged and inspired. With a little yellow pad filled with notes. Author […]
Window on Writing: When Words Won’t Come
When the body’s weary and words won’t come take a nap take a walk snap some pictures and chew on words that nourish your writer’s heart. The line of words fingers your own heart. It invades arteries, and enters the heart on a flood of breath; it presses the moving rims of […]
Window on Writing: Not Yet (A Random Act of Poetry)
I gather heart shreds and try to stuff them into the hollow of my heaving chest as moon grins thin through dark cocoon and hair spills wet on pillow. Let it go But still I cling. Not yet Forgiveness knots in stomach seeks release but I hang on a little longer. It’s too soon The […]
Window on Writing: Upside Down and Right Side Up
The room is dark. The house is cold. I snuggle deep under the down comforter. And reach out my hand to fumble for the Droid on the bedside table. While the mantra runs through my head. Hit your knees before you hit the keys. ~@stickyJesus But I pull the Droid under the covers. And hit […]
Window on Writing: Looking into the Light
A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged; it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and time in which it is used.~Oliver Wendall Holmes, Jr. We’ve been staring at the sun over at The High Calling. Trying to capture lens flare […]
Window on Writing: What’s in a Word?
What’s in a Word? a seed mined from a thought planted on a page dispersed with a breath a jewel with many facets pregnant with personality filled with power and rich with a million possibilities A Random Act of Poetry for The High Calling where we are asked to write a poem that tells a […]
Window on Writing: The Sounds of Silence
Deeply listening to what is within and around us changes us. ~John Fox I’ve tried to write to the sound of music. It doesn’t work for me. I create better in silence. Although there really isn’t such a thing. It’s when I’m silent that I hear the sounds of silence. Silence makes you attentive to […]
Window on Writing: Today I’m Frustrated
The wicker basket spewed the toys all over the living room this morning. Again. The grandgirl spewed bananas and cereal all over my fresh-washed white robe. Again. I’ve closed doors and moved furniture strategically to block baby finger magnets. Again. I notice a vague ache in my back. Either Lillee is getting heavier or I’m […]
Window on Writing: Wordless Recreation
Too much reading is very bad indeed. Yep, you read that right. That’s what Dorothea Brande said in her classic book, Becoming a Writer. Say what? She says writers tend to take too many “busmen’s holidays.” In other words, they tend to spend their “off time” doing writing-related activities (such as reading or talking shop), […]
Window on Writing: Stuttering
Baby toys litter the living room floor. Along with the rolled and taped diaper I forgot to didn’t bother to toss. Wait. There are two of them. Kitchen floor crumbs crunch underfoot. Last night’s dinner dishes teeter on the counter–along with with those from today’s breakfast and lunch. We could eat off the dining room […]
