I’ve decided I want to write more. I know: If you’ve been around any of my blogs, you know I’ve written those (or similar) words before. But as the saying goes, one must put one’s coins where one’s piehole is, since that’s a sure way to keep the fires burning. Or something like that. I’ve joined Medium — you’ll find an RSS feed in the sidebar, but I encourage you to follow me over there. In case you don’t want to go fishing, here’s a link: https://medium.com/@andreekoehler C’mon past and set for a spell. I’ll likely be doing more over…
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No disrespect to whoever coined the term ‘messy middle’ as an element of the novel (or story, I suppose) writing process. If you aren’t sure what it is, check out this post from Edits Underway. TL:DR – it’s that part where you get stuck and start thinking you’ll never finish. Or where you get down on yourself, that those goo-gobs of words you’ve already written are rubbish. Or where you feel you’ve written yourself in a corner with no way back to a sight-line of a destination. Even with a compelling image like the one above, I struggle with this…
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One day, I decided I wanted a new pen name. Then, life changed and I realized I am not satisfied with that name, despite the fact that I’ve published under it. It’s just not me, you know? I’m working it out now, trying to decide what my new pen name will be. The posts from the site I’d built for my temporary alter-ego are now integrated here. I’ll be updating the categories for the posts and changing links that went to it over the next few weeks. I’ll ultimately use this site for everything. Appreciate your patience during the flux.
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I first thought the keyboard emoji for a heart was a kiss. <3 The ‘3’ are the lips and the ‘<‘ was the pucker. I used it voraciously, as if I’d found a new toy. And then the toy broke: I think I posted the ‘kiss’ on a site that auto-changed the keystrokes to a real emoji and up popped the heart. I was devastated. I tried to argue with myself that it could still be a heart. I could pick up the broken pucker, the full lips, put them back together and Voila! All better. Except it wasn’t. Image…
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Hey, Cave Dwellers: It is my honor to feature my writing colleague, Emerian Rich. She’s got three great pointers for new authors (and some not-so-new authors … just sayin’). Here she is! As writers, we have many bad habits that hinder our careers. I am just as guilty as the next author and some of us don’t even know we’re doing it. I’m going to bring to light three self-torturing habits we have, in hopes that we can all help each other stop the madness. We don’t support ourselves. Sounds weird, but it’s true. We wrote these stories, we love…
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Barbara snuggled beneath the bearskin blanket as snow fell in giant flakes outside the picture window. She breathed on the glass, drew a doodle in the mist, and watched it disappear. The evening grew darker and the flakes came with a fury she had not seen in many years. She glanced at the calendar: if her calculations were correct, a new year was dawning on Earth. She touched a spot on the window and a screen appeared. When the red light stopped blinking, she began:It\’s been 450 years there. Hard to believe that in space-time, I\’ve only been gone 16…
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Have you seen the video of the dancing dog? If not, this is for you:https://youtu.be/kcKESVkr0qsYou\’re welcome.This is what it feels like just before Plovember, known more appropriately perhaps as Nano Poblano, or National Blog Posting Month. Some of my fellow peppers have a plan for this month (cue my loud, braying, New Jersey laughter): I do as well — to write each day, God willing, through the month.We will begin with a trip down automotive memory lane for a few days; I had planned to do this for a different write-each-day-on-your-blog challenge, but alas … I was a total shlub…
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I look back with um … well … fondness would not be entirely accurate or nearly truthful … at my first blog posts.I decided one day (okay, it was a few years back now and you know I have a dreadful memory. Perhaps I decided over the course of a few days. Or months. Maybe a year. Don\’t judge) to start writing. I didn\’t have a bestseller book idea in mind and after a random search of the Interwebz found this neat thing called blogging. I signed up to follow a few blogs in my genres of interest and started writing for…