It’s almost time for NaNoWriMo!

Already we are halfway through October, and you know what that means: November is National Novel Writing Month! This means that thousands of people will attempt to write a book of at least 50,000 words in a single month. There are no prizes (unless you want to order the cool t-shirts). The reward is the…

League of Utah Writers Conference

Thank you to all those who worked so hard to put the writers' conference together and make it a success. I enjoyed it very much, learned a lot, and made some new friends. Thanks to all the presenters and teachers, and for the keynote speaker, Mette Ivie Harrison, whose address was very inspiring. Thank you also…

A Study in Mystery

For six weeks, my husband and I have been taking a writing class.  A Study in Mystery, taught by the entertaining and highly knowledgeable Johnny Worthen, has taken us from the history of the mystery genre to inventing our characters, to outlining scenes and figuring out where to put the clues, and on to actually…

Truth

Last night at Greek class, our teacher was taking words apart and explaining their origins and meanings. I always find this fascinating. Language is a fluid, growing thing. A word is not just a word. With twenty-six letters in the English language and millions of combinations of said letters, we form countless words and ideas…

Writers are Everywhere

Last month I was in LaVerkin, a very small town in southern Uah -- not a place you would expect to meet fellow writers.  My husband and I went to our friends' house to visit, and to my surprise, a writers' group meeting was about to take place at their house.  Our friends' daughter and…

NaNoWriMo begins again!

November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo.  My daughter introduced me to NaNoWriMo a few years ago.  I thought it would be fun, but I never got organized enough to follow through.  Last November I took up the challenge, and in one month I wrote a novel. It was a heady, exhilarating experience.  I…

Rose Daughter

Last night I finished rereading Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley, which is a gorgeous retelling of Beauty and the Beast.  Actually, this is Robin’s second version of Beauty and the Beast.  I read the first one, Beauty, when it was first published in 1978, and I absolutely loved it.  I’ve reread it so many times…

The Sixth Power

Last January I published my first novel, The Sixth Power.  A lot has happened in the past year.  I've learned a lot about publishing and marketing.  I've also learned a tremendous amount about the craft of writing.  Attending workshops, reading other people's blogs and books (and applying their ideas) and writing both my blog and…

Wise Words

I am reading A Circle of Quiet, by Madeleine L’Engle.  How I wish she was still alive!  I would love to sit down with her over lunch and discuss books and ideas.  She had so many wise things to say.  Here is just one of them:  “A great painting, or symphony, or play, doesn’t diminish…

The Joy of Creating

People have an inborn need to create. It’s not about how much money you can make from it or how good at it you are, you just HAVE to do it. You have a driving NEED to paint that painting, or play that song, or write that story, or decorate that cake, or grow beautiful…