May is about to fall over and crush me flat. It's good to see the future! Anyway, I will participate in Story-a-Day May, and to add a dash of extra madness (because really, whenever you do anything, a dash of extra madness is good) I'll be trying National Blog Posting Month too! The topic (for …
The Time to Make up Your Mind about People Is Never
Have you heard this line: The time to make up your mind about people is never. I saw The Philadelphia Story in my early teens, and it is still a favorite. This works in real life and in fiction. While there are certain groups that I'd like to label with some lovely satisfying insult--and sometimes …
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The Common Sense Page from My Brain
The ink is my pen is frozen and so are the keys on my keyboard. Really! It's true! Okay. Really, nothing is wrong with the ink or the keyboard. The problem is in my head. One or two of you may know that a while ago an agent asked to see some pages of my …
Be Careful What You Wish For
When I was 8, I asked God to help my dad find a wife. Dad did find a wife. And she proceeded to turn our lives upside down with her madness and cruelty. When I was in high school, I tried to make this deal with God, "I don't care if I can't get a …
The Unreal
Have you seen this documentary? Henry Darger wrote a novel more than 15,000 pages long. He created hundreds of paintings and drawings. No one knew until he was dead. He wasn't a man to go on tour or network. He created his own world and didn't have to care about book signings, fan pages, reviews, …
Hey Blog, You’ll Never Publish in this Industry Again.
Rejection hurts. Sure. No surprise there. But rejection doesn't annoy me. People throwing their cigarette butts on the ground annoy me. Students who don't do any work and then insist on moving up to the next level annoy me. Absurd rules annoy me. And publishing is filled with absurd rules. I understand rules of politeness. …
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You want my name where?
I can't keep up with all the blogs I want to read, but lo, I have found another one to interest me. Author Anne R. Allen suggests in this blog post that a blog should have the author's name in its title. This is a small detail. And not every bit of blogging advice is …
This is a sign by the side of the road.
When I was 17, I applied to college far away from home. I didn't discuss my choices with my parents. "I want," I told my mother, "to decide for myself--that way I can take the credit if I succeed and I can't blame you if I fail." I don't remember anyone except for my mother …
The Power of Words and the Paper They’re Printed on
Write the right thing. I found this video over at angelinelajeunesse. I don't know her blog well, yet, but I came across her on a facebook group--writers unboxed. Come join me over there sometime. Anyway, how you word things obviously matters or you wouldn't write. And the words we choose shape our perceptions. If the …
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Show!
More art or more writing? I had an art show today, and it went well. People I didn't even know bought my art! A few friends bought art too. And friends may tell you they like your art to be polite. But few people part with their money to be polite. And I give people …
Marta Bacon 