Why today of all days?
My cell phone doesn’t get that many calls. Aside from calls from the Boyfriend, and occasional calls from the roommate, it mostly remains silent. That’s fine 364 days of the year. But there’s one day that I want the phone to ring: Golden Heart finalist call day. In 2011,...
Too nice?
I’m afflicted — cursed, if you will — with being that most heinous of attributes: Nice. Too nice. Some people — normal people — might think nice is a good thing. And that is, indeed, the case when you’re dealing with fellow human beings. A little kindness can go...
In defense of the e-reader
In my other life (my day job), I’m a page designer and sometimes writer. I used to write a weekly column called “Adventures in Cooking,” which eventually became the basis for my weight-loss blog, Adventures in Weight Loss, Cooking and Life. My job duties have shifted and I don’t...
Back with my WWF goals
The big day’s finally here: The start of the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood Winter Writing Festival. It crept up on me so quickly that I didn’t have as much time as I’d hoped to craft my goals — so I’m going to build on last year’s list. With a few...
It’s almost here!
Golden Heart finalist calls will come out in less than three months. But that’s not the “it” I’m talking about (yet). It’s almost time for the annual Ruby Slippered Sisterhood Winter Writing Festival. The festival starts on Jan. 11 and runs through the end of February — an extra...
The power of persistence
Had you asked me last week whether I was going to win NaNoWriMo this year, I’d have laughed — most likely right in your face. With two entries for the 2012 Golden Heart competition to polish, I’d pretty much written off finishing NaNo. When I popped my last GH...
A writer’s Thanksgiving
With today being a time to give thanks, I thought it’d be fun to reflect on some of the things I’m thankful for in my writing life this year. My Golden Heart final. Having “Beauty and the Ballplayer” final in the GH did more than open new doors. It...
Gearing up for NaNoWriMo
I’m pretty sure pre-planning was the reason I powered through 53,000 words in 30 days in 2010. So as much as I hate to sit down and “plot,” I spent part of the weekend doing exactly that. I’ve had the idea for this story for a while, ever since...
Hard truth
What do you do when one trusted friend tells you to scrap the first chapter of one of the stories you plan on entering in the 2012 GH? If it’s a chapter you love, chock-full of hilarious lines and you’re not ready to hear the fateful directive to “chop...
Featured in ‘Media Monday’
When opportunity knocks, you listen. So when an encounter through the day job led to a chance to be profiled on a Phoenix PR firm’s website, I seized the opportunity. I was in contact with Alison Bailin, a senior account executive at HMA Public Relations, about a new Subway...