Have you started laughing and been unable to stop? Most likely this has happened when you weren't supposed to laugh at all. Years ago, I went with friends to Steve Martin's film LA Story. In one scene, Martin's character, Harris, stops to talk to one of those highway signs that light up and give drivers …
Faking
I got through high school and college without a boyfriend. I had a few dates, but no one you could call a boyfriend. (By boyfriend I mean someone who would actually refer to me as his girlfriend.) So after dating (and I use the term loosely) guys who seemed incapable of anything resembling a actual …
High School, Facebook, and Who the Hell Am I Anyway?
Former high school friends find me on facebook. This happens to everyone who ventures onto fb-land. Maybe this makes you happy. Most of the people who "friend" me, are nice people. They never did me any particular harm back in school. In some ways, catching up on their lives is good. But here is the …
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Publishing My Way
I've stopped participating in online conversations about self-publishing vs. traditional publishing. Every person has to follow their own way, as we know, so I don't see the point in even having those conversations. I mean, who cares anyway? But I love the idea of making my own books. I've made a few in the past. …
Shut the hell up, you silly writer!
So. I finished (well, as much as I ever finish) the story I was pontificating about yesterday. The problem with talking about things is that I leave the conversation wondering why I make such a big deal out of...whatever. Now I feel this story has an impossible burden placed upon it. At this point I …
To Write or Not Write That Sex Scene
Why not fade to black and leave it all to the imagination? The reader's imagination is a great thing and shouldn't be underestimated. The comments on yesterday's post made me think about several issues when deciding whether or not to write a sex scene. I'm no expert at writing such things, so this is mostly …
Slippery Little Bastards
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 …
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 …
Marta Bacon 