Howdy! While the earlier part of this week was fraught with weirdness, today has turned a corner. Not only have I been quite productive (and dare I say giddy — is that unbecoming of a Cave Mistress such as myself?), I have a publisher and agent who have placed the query on Knowing Abbie in their \’to be reviewed\’ pile! Not an acceptance, but closer than an outright \’no\’. I\’ll take it!However, potential giddiness aside, I have a better reason to interrupt your Friday: I have a guest post on Gabriela\’s DIYMFA page today! I have been honored to be…
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Imagine with me this ehem, fictional scenario: You are supposed to be cleaning, at a meeting, working, going to the gym, taking the dog for a walk, filing your taxes, driving your great aunt Susie to the dentist doing something and instead, you sneak off and stick your nostrils in a book.It\’s a very good book, one you can\’t put down.You are transported to other worlds (okay, if speculative or science fiction isn\’t your thing shame on you! maybe you are transported to other locations or times in history … just hang with me, okay?). Your brain is tingling with new story…
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There must be something unique about a person who holds a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in writing who develops a writing program called the Do-It-Yourself MFA. Gabriela Pereira identifies herself not only as a writer and teacher, but as a word nerd whose goal is not to take over the world with prose (well, maybe a little) but to challenge the expectation that only those with a graduate degree and years of classroom-guided processes can be successful and published authors. After a number of years in development, Pereira has put her proven techniques into an easy-to-follow formula. Broken into…
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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…
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Our intrepid word nerd leader, Gabriela, asked this question today: Tell a story about a time when you had to honor your reality. The behind-the-scenes here is that life (often) intervenes in our writing schedules. Here\’s an example:Leave us go back to … wait. This is happening now, live and in person.Life has presently intervened in my writing, but I can take you on a quick memory lane trip. A few years back, my full-time work contract ended. I was struggling to make sense of why I wasn\’t picked up for any of the other contracts I applied for and…
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Ah, Gabriela and her compelling questions … this week, she asked us to rewind and reflect on how we became writers. Specifically: When did you realize that you wanted to write? What motivated you to get started?Leave us go back about a thousand years to when yours truly was in elementary school. The war with my second grade teacher (over the spelling of \’lick\’ that resulted in my refusing to speak or acknowledge her presence whilst in class — a story for another time) was in the not-too-distant past. For some reason, I had read the electric company newsletter that came…
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Western society in particular seems to focus on the letters behind our name as proof of our ability to do something. When visiting a doctor, our eyes might wander to the directory and peruse the list: DO, MD, PhN, PA, RN … If we take a class, there is something about seeing PhD, EdD, JD, DBA, MSW or some other combination of alphabet soup being the facilitator\’s name.But what about writers? Does an MFA make difference?The question was sparked by a discussion group and I thought I would take a moment to explore it here.Gabriela Pereira runs a great site…