You know you have a friend who picks terrible men. Disgusting, lying, cheating men. Maybe dangerous and abusive men. Sometimes these men don't have the looks to use as an excuse. And you wonder what on earth does she see in him? Maybe he's got a big...bank account or...something. It's a mystery. But romantic leads …
Sharing, Sort of…
Sherri got me with this tag that tries to get us to learn more about each other. Usually sharing more about my life seems a tedious exercise because I don't do much beyond stay in my own head and I worry that blogging encourages way too much self-obsession as it is, but I'm game to …
Decent People Have Real Jobs…The Rest of Us Write
WordPress appears to have this new, odd feature of adding links to the bottom of posts. These links are supposed to be relevant, related, or in some way of interest to anyone reading the post. That remains to be seen. In theory it ought to do that improve-traffic thing, but that is a mixed blessing. …
Continue reading Decent People Have Real Jobs…The Rest of Us Write
Bad Mothers
The mothers in my novel are terrible. A couple characters have good moms, but they're not in this story. Part of me wonders why it is these women are so awful. Then again, part of me believes they fit the story, even though someone may accuse me of blaming moms or mom-hating or some such …
Drink of the Gods and Great Women
When I was a girl, I believed my grandmother and my mom were the most amazing and brilliant people in the universe. Even when my own mother faltered or failed, when she didn't, perhaps, mother very well, no one could compare. My mom told me that I should rebel, that I should talk back and …
The Rewrite Chronicles
Okay, I've gone with the plot change I've been obsessing over, and now I've got to cut out, oh, five chapters. That's right. Gone, baby, gone. The surviving chapters will need such a serious rewrite that it makes most of the comments made by my one reader, well, beside the point. I paid good money …
The Rewrite Chronicles
If it takes such a long time to edit, you'd think the end product would be perfect--or damn near close. This is not the case. I've spent an inordinate amount of time just trying to arrange characters in a room--and never mind getting a character out of a room. If more than two characters are …
Sue, Ignore, or Invite to Dinner?
So, if you become a famous author and make more money than you can make sense of, and one of your fans gets carried away a writes books about your fictional universe, would you sue or shrug? (This question, by the way, is inspired by the case in London between JK Rowling and a fan.)
Badgering–The Visualization Edition
Hey fellow writers! Tonight I've got some free time. Real time without the kid or the husband. Wow. Think of all the things I could do to avoid writing! Organize my closet studio. Vacuum. Laundry. Go to the bookstore. Make phone calls. Write emails! So many good ways to avoid writing. After all, most of …
There You Have It
"The advice 'write only what you know' increases the likelihood that you will know the same things forever." --Dennis A. Mahoney
Marta Bacon 