I really good at not writing sex scenes. I was, after all, raised not talking about lots of things. In fact, by my teenage years, I was an expert at figuring out what my family was not talking about. The more I didn't talk about the things, the happier everyone was with me. There have …
Author: mapelba
I'm a writer, artist, teacher, mother, wife, daughter, friend, coffee addict... What else? A success, a failure, a mess, a fan, a hater of housework, a lover of dogs, a liberal, an obsessive, and a bunch of other things that probably would never occur to me. I reveal myself in more ways in my writings and art than in any list of adjectives. And whoever you are, I hope most of all that you are a reader.
Women Are Awesome. How about if We Stop Murdering Them?
I don't remember when I started to care about women. (And I'm not going to say women's issues because it's not a self-contained status sort of thing. We're half the population----nothing special interest about that.) In grad school I complained about a professor who told the class his favorite bar was called "The Silent Woman" …
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Kill Them All!
I've just killed someone. Well, a fictional someone. A fictional character that I quite liked. She was young. And sympathetic. I wanted her to live, but that seemed...so unlikely. I've killed characters before...this one just bothered me more than usual. Maybe I've watched too much of Stranger than Fiction. Am I killing a character because …
This Witch Doesn’t Make Love Potions, She Makes Stories (although maybe that’s the same thing)
To be a successful writer takes many things. The first thing may be a definition of success. For some people, that's lots of sales. I've had my art in two art festivals. Hundreds of people walked through my booth. Some of those people stopped to look. A few of those people talked to me. And …
Rejection Is Funny
BBC Channel 4 seems to take issue with sharing videos----silly folks----but whatev because you should see this clip on dealing with rejection. The bit about "sucking out your eyes" was particularly funny to me. I'm getting ready to send more stories out into the world of literary journals. Either a story will be rejected (likely!) …
My Narrow View Is Sharp Enough to Stab Him in the Eye
I spend a stupid amount of time worrying if my writing is good enough. But apparently what I needed was a good old-fashioned sexist attack to make me know my writing is a damn well just fine. Have you seen the article about VS Naipaul? NPR picked up the story from The Guardian. And Naipaul …
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Maybe Keep Going
This may be the end. Well, of the whole National Blog Post Month is over for me. Whew. I tried this a couple of years ago and it may be a couple more years hence before I do it again. Maybe! You never know. In the meantime, I'll be hanging out at the roller rink …
No Maybe about This Baby
I may be excited. No. Definitely. I have story and my art published over at Scheherezade's Bequest! Please take a look. The online journal has lots of great stories and links. Wahoo! And as always, I'm putting up some of my other stories over at The Imaginary Lake. Thanks to everyone who has encouraged and …
Maybe You Should Fret
Maybe I fret too much. Sure. Fret. Sounds like a knot to me. A knot I can't possibly undo. If no one says anything about my stories, I think the stories are bad. Or at least failures. Or boring. Or something generally not nice. If someone says something nice, I think awesome and OMG I'll …
Maybe You’re a Winner!
I may be jumping up and down in a panic. There is going to be a contest over at Story-a-Day. An author is going to judge stories written for the challenge----one story per writer. So, you know I'm staring at what I've written wondering which story to choose. It isn't life or death or anything...but …
Marta Bacon 