emails
April 29, 2009
- When I created the new videos about "my writing life" for my website, my plan was simply to answer the questions I'm frequently asked, so that when readers email me with those questions, I can point them to the videos for the answers. I was so pleased to learn that frequent blog commenter Brenda is using them with her students. Now I've learned that she's not the only teacher to ...
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March 18, 2009
- I am a big fan of the online world. I've written about this before: online teaching changed my life. Online communication has saved me countless dollars in ink and paper as I can now send manuscripts to my editors and agent with a click. Online social networking groups have brought people back into my life (for better or worse, but mostly better). Online groups helped me create a bigger ...
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February 25, 2009
- I have been busy all day with housekeeping details--they never end--and working on an article that was first started in 2007. It needs cutting, adding to, endnotes reworked, etc. For the most part, this is boring work. (Although sometimes I run into something new while checking out sources and then I get excited.) Tonight I went to First Place at Center, and afterwards some of us filled our last ...
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February 25, 2009
- I am being haunted by the RNC. Maybe they know my son went to protest in Minneapolis last summer. Maybe they know I have never voted Republican in my whole life and are desperate to convert me. Yes, I had about a half a minute thought about voting for Governor Schwarzenegger because I am a fan of the absurd and because I enjoyed the Terminator movies. But the fancy passed, and I have ...
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February 4, 2009
- My co-workers and I send the wittiest emails back and forth all day, mostly in response to the insanity around us. One colleague, who sits directly across from a rather offensive supervisor with an unsteady personality, had taken to referring to said supervisor as "Crazy." For instance: "Watch out. Crazy seems to have forgotten her meds this morning." Well, it came to our ...
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January 30, 2009
- I've received a few anxious emails about my outline process from several writers who are at work on their first novels. They're afraid an outline will suck the joy out of writing. They're afraid it will somehow lock them in. They ask, "Doesn't it kill your creativity to know what's going to happen?" The answer is no, not even a little bit. Once you begin working with your ...
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August 27, 2008
- We've talked before about the "colorful" language sometimes used in novels and my readers represent many different opinions on the subject.My opinion is and always has been that such language should not be gratuitous (same with graphic sex and violence), but it's sometimes necessary. (note: those of you easily offended had better skip After the Storm, the sequel to Before the Storm, ...
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