A few days before StoryADay’s October Critique Week, founder Julie Duffy scheduled a workshop called Critique Best Practices for the Superstars community. Fellow writer and community member Walter Lawn had graciously offered to facilitate the hour-long online meeting, sharing his experiences and insights developed, in part, through his ongoing role as co-leader of a critique …
(WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Jim Shepard’s “Privilege.”) In June 1972, the summer before my family and I moved from Philadelphia to Dauphin, Hurricane Agnes pummeled central Pennsylvania and flooded its Harrisburg capital, a scant seven miles from our soon to be constructed house. Even after we settled, its damage could be seen in …
I have adored Haruki Murakami for nearly twenty years, when one of my AP students introduced him to me as her favorite contemporary writer and Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World as her favorite book. Start there, she suggested. So I did, stopping at the bookstore on my way home from work because …
So I’m trying to write the kind of book I love to read. Diverse characters. Multiple POVs, multiple timelines, multiple worlds. A bit historical, dystopian, and mystery, with a bit of myth and a few ghosts thrown in for good measure. Go big or go home, right? Hahahahaha! I said I wanted the challenge, remember? …
Drum roll, please! I won my 2024 Goodreads reading challenge. Sort of. I said I wanted to read 100 books. I read 104!! Barely. I read the last word of the last book at 8:26 PM December 30, Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Probably not the best end-of-challenge choice, considering the holiday crush …
(fourth in an occasional series on BOOKS THAT MATTER & THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE THEM) Forecasters had called for up to three inches of snow and high winds the mid-February day I spoke with Abigail Greenwood. A cozy fire flickered against one wall of her virtual background, while through the windows of another, a cheerful …
I have a confession to make. In April and May, I watched waaay too much (for me) Monday night television. More on that in a bit, but first–StoryADay. For years, I had put off joining the May challenge because I mistakenly thought I had to write a ready-for-readers story every day for thirty-one days …
Here in my corner of Pennsylvania, the first half of April was rainy and cold, but the second half was beautiful. Sunny blue skies and (mostly) seasonal temperatures, perfect for digging in the dirt. Hubby and I weeded and trimmed and mulched, and then I turned my attention to spring cleaning my secret garden, so …
Lila starts, awakening on the family room couch, a blanket noosed about her torso and legs. In her nightmare, a monstrous tree leafed in violent red thrust skyward along their yard’s furthermost edge, its roots mounded with freshly turned soil like a grave. Her grave. She’d grabbed a shovel. Advanced, then stopped. Poison ivy, her …
As I write, Thanksgiving is a few days away, but I’m already listening to Christmas music while cross-stitching ornaments. Usually I wait until after Santa arrives in Herald’s Square to start prepping, but this year I started early. The ornaments take awhile, and the music… I credit my son. Recently, my daughter accompanied me on …
My Name was Supposed to be Elizabeth Ann 