There’s nothing like writing to expose all your personality quirks. And by quirks, of course, I mean all those precious little neuroses, psychoses, proclivities, and the flat-out whack-a-doodleness that make you… you. Or is that just me? I’m going to assume I’m in good company. Humor me. I’m a bit of a perfectionist. (I’ll just…
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Real Writers Top Ten – April 2022
Random Stuff: How cool is it that one of RMFW’s critique groups publishes short story anthologies? The members of the Speculative Fiction Critique Group help each other with improving their craft, but are also learning about the whole publishing process. The latest anthology is called “Second Law” (published in December 2021). Ralph Beckett, who writes…
Crosswords and Other Puzzles
A passion for word games and puzzles can serve as a bridge to creative and expository writing. Letters and sounds are the building-blocks of words. Words form sentences and sentences convey meaning to inform readers, evoke emotions, and stimulate thinking. Working crosswords, playing scrabble, and completing word search exercises can pay dividends. Even the taking…
Fear of “Promotional” Rejection
Although the words don’t always come as fast as I like, I seldom experience writer’s block. But I constantly struggle with “promotion block”. I tell myself I need to promote and set things in motion to start but then I never follow through. When my last book came out in the fall, I made some…
New Kid on the Block . . . Again
Have you ever experienced such loneliness you resorted to befriending a ghost? I recently finished a short story about a girl who does just that after moving to a new high school. Granted most of us don’t have that option, but I’m hoping the story captures a feeling we’ve all known, one of being different,…