Tag: writing

In the Landow Creek fiction series, the main character, Ivory, discovers the benefits of herbs for more than culinary uses. Naturally, to make the story as realistic as possible, I drew from personal experience and research. One of the first herbs I remember learning about is yarrow. I was...

I sat in class with my eighth – grade head on the table. I was ashamed. Dread climbed up from my stomach and formed a knot in my throat as I anticipated telling my parents about the D grade I had just received in art. I was a straight-A...

Until it did, now I’m a believer. In writing circles, there is a story that Jerry Seinfeld writes a joke every day and afterward makes a big X through the date on a calendar. He makes forward progress in his craft by not wanting to break the chain of...

I live, as I suspect many writers do, somewhere in between the siren and the muse. Remember the Sirens from Homer’s Odyssey? Just outside my studio door lurks a siren. She wears the colors of Facebook, television, and mindless reading. She uses a lullaby to entice me back under...

Today, I’m sharing a glimpse behind the curtain into my novel writing process. As a writer, I’m always interested in how others do their work—always looking for new and improved ways to get words on the page. I used to feel guilt and shame over using so many analog...

“Gonna” is my most recent pet peeve. I’ve been a reader since the summer my dad pulled a fifth-grade reader from his bookshelf for me. Plowing through that compilation of stories, I found a world opened to me far from the small farm where we lived. Since that day,...

Just as important, why do I like it? Magical realism, according to Google, “is a literary and artistic style that depicts the real world as having an undercurrent of magic or fantasy.” The story is “set in a realistic environment, but includes supernatural or dreamlike elements that are presented...

As I started thinking about writing a novel, I knew I wanted to include a story passed down in my family about stopping blood by quoting a verse in the Bible. The concept always intrigued me and my grandma quoted as fact that she had healed more than one...

The house inherited by Ivory in The Inheritance has specific characteristics which prompted questions, the primary one being: is that a real house? As my brother said when he read The Inheritance: “that’s our house!” When I wrote that first novel, I knew I needed to be as descriptive...