Habit words. That’s what I call them. Some editors lump them into the repetitive word category. Others include them in articles about adjectives and adverbs. I’ve dubbed them habit words because they flow into our writing in the same way they clutter up our speech. The little devils were probably hardwired into our brains when …Read More
The Sunshine Blogger Award
Blogger supreme Holly Jahangiri (It’s All a Matter of Perspective blog) was kind enough to include me in her list of eleven folks for the Sunshine Blogging Award. I don’t always pick up awards and pass them on anymore, but this one is a little bit of fun and the bright, shiny award badge is …Read More
Self-Editing One Step at a Time: How to Identify Dragging Narrative
I’m focused on novel revisions and self-editing for a mystery manuscript, so I decided to publish a few posts based on segments of my Self-Editing One Step at a Time presentation/handout. Today I’m presenting a few clues to find spots in your novel that sag (as in that “sagging middle”) or drag (as in “boring …Read More
A Few Things I Remember About High School
I don’t know why this popped into my mind as a blog topic on a writerly, bookish blog, but it did, so I’m going with it. Here are the memories that surfaced first (and remember, these memories are close to 60 years old): The student who brought peach Schnapps to school and got caught. I’m …Read More
Things I Did Yesterday, a Warm Sunny Midwinter Day
There was a blizzard going on out east, bringing NYC, DC, and south to a standstill. I watched on television, shivered, and sympathized. Here in Northern Colorado, the weather had performed one of its fancy turnarounds. Right in the middle of winter, after days of cold and with snow still on the ground, the temperature …Read More
6 Secrets of Successful Critique Groups … by Laurence MacNaughton
Some of the worst critique groups on Earth can seem wonderful, at first. They’re friendly. They’re supportive. They make you feel good about your writing. But there may be danger signs. Do they rehash the same tired old stories at every meeting? Do members routinely show up empty-handed? Are they really helping you become a …Read More
Taking the Bitter with the Sweet
I have bad news and good news. Bad: My publisher, Five Star/Cengage, is ending its mystery line and going forward only with westerns and Frontier Fiction. Those writers who had mysteries in the queue but no contract yet must start the search again….or self-publish. Good: The novel I submitted to Five Star in October …Read More
Escaping the Corporate Tomb … by Rich Keller
Pat, once again I thank you for the opportunity to spill my words and punctuation on your website. I apologize for what happened to your knee. I meant for it to be slightly bruised – not to be surgically replaced. Apparently, this Tanya Harding person I hired went a bit crazy. And they call figure …Read More
I’ve Only Broken Two Things on this Site So Far
Well, at least one of them has been broken from the beginning. My Contact page doesn’t work, and I had no luck yesterday getting it fixed. It does say a message has been successfully sent, but nothing ever shows up in my email Inbox (or in Spam). Similarly, I do not get emails when someone …Read More
Working on Updates and Enhancements This Weekend
If things start looking wacky or the site crashes, you’ll know why. Hopefully all will be fine by Monday.
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