[Alma T. C. Boykin] N.B. I'm not talking about true writer's block, or burn out. I've never blocked completely yet. I've had months where I "piddled around" and didn't accomplish as much as I wanted to, but never had a total brain lock. Yet. [taps wood] There you are, typing away on your Work-In-Progress (WIP)... Continue Reading →
Books in My Head
My subconscious, or Muse, or *$^#$@!!!!! in my head seems to have a problem. Or maybe it’s them, and I don’t mean that in the Woke sense. it’s much more like popcorn kittens then an single subconscious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDABjGGeZzM It’s like, the hero’s leading the heavily armed convoy into the burned ruins of the city .... Continue Reading →
Time Travelers Contact Department U . . .
Call it a writing prompt--nothing to do with being clueless about what to write--honest! Time Travel Now, how many nations do you think have a special department all fixed up and waiting for the arrival of someone from the future? And what would this (hopefully, really, really boring) department do? Let's see. Surely the US... Continue Reading →
Thank you, Frau Lindemann
Sometimes it takes a while to recognize a blessing. In fact, sometimes it takes 60 years to realize the full extent of it. Look, I already knew my high school German teacher was a blessing, even if she disapproved of me personally. Without Frau Lindemann the school wouldn't have offered German at all, and without... Continue Reading →
The Care and Feeding of a Hyperactive Muse
I am a very disorganized writer, and basically lazy. At least my conscious mind is. The Muse, AKA my subconscious, not so much. In fact, hyperactive is probably not the right term, but . . . Well let’s just say that one day, about . . . oh dear . . . Twenty-five years ago?... Continue Reading →
Details
Details Worlds and characters . . . They all need details to make them real to the readers. And the fun part is when they serve a dual purpose with foreshadowing. I just reread John Ringo and Lydia Sherrer’s _Into The Real_, this time with a little more analysis than the first read. And there... Continue Reading →
Pecking Away
Just Pecking Away At (1) the third Murder Mystery in the Fall of the Alliance series and (2) the conclusion of this sidetrack into the Bad Guy’s part of the Multiverse. Except, maybe a collection of shorter works . . . I don’t know whether to ignore the Real World and get some work done,... Continue Reading →
A Rainbow
My laptop has this pretty feature. I didn't buy it for this, it wasn't even a factor in the decision making, but still, this morning I'm sitting here watching the waves of color wash around behind the keys, and contemplating why I named this computer Iris. It's not just the fancy backlighting being a rainbow... Continue Reading →
Kitchen Duty
As I was peeling potatoes this morning, I cut myself. As you do. I managed not to drip on the food, and to find a bandaid in the dark (everyone is sleeping), contemplated why I don't have a first aid kit in the kitchen (knives are in the kitchen, why not bandages?), and finished my... Continue Reading →
Sunflower Curse
Oddly enough, this is not a political post. It is, rather, a glorious comment on human nature. What are we writers, after all, other than recorders of, and explorers of the heights and depths of the souls we see around us in all their potential? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L17Bi7zBJHI She offers them seeds for their pockets. The lyrical... Continue Reading →