“I suspect that most authors don't really want criticism, not even constructive criticism. They want straight-out, unabashed, unashamed, fulsome, informed, naked praise, arriving by the shipload every fifteen minutes or so.”    ― Neil Gaiman Don't be a Frodo. Frodo, a hobbit from the Shire; big-hearted, innocent, with an incredibly irritating propensity for setting off alone.... Continue Reading →

Have you ever been trapped between two fears? Two forces, pulled together like attracting magnets, you the small piece of paper pinned between them? Two fears, paralyzing in their polarity, too scared to move, yet too scared not to? I was. They caged me. The fear of action. The fear of inaction. They wrapped their... Continue Reading →

"You need to play to win. But you also need to win ... to play." -Michael Scott I took a ju-jitzu class once in college. The one other girl to sign up was a six-foot tall beastly blonde who smoked like a chimney and seemed to have a strong aversion to showers. Naturally, we were... Continue Reading →

I love asking my husband questions like, “what would you do if you had unlimited money?” If you could take any trip, any at all, no limitations on time or finances, what would you do? He comes up with the most extravagant, most creative, most impossible answers. He is a dreamer. Asking him the typical... Continue Reading →

"All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire."     -Aristotle "How did your writing go today?" My blood runs cold. That question. That dreaded question. It is inevitable. Everyday I have to face it. That question. Uttered from my husband's lips. "How did your writing... Continue Reading →

"We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing it is not as dreadful as it appeared, discovering we have the strength to stare it down."      - Eleanor Roosevelt The path of life is littered with corpses of slain dragons. Some... Continue Reading →

“Yelling at living things does tend to kill the spirit in them. Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words will break our hearts...” ― Robert Fulghum Life sucks.  It's the truth, we all know that it does. It's an unpredictable concoction of beauty and suffering, pleasure and pain, excitement and monotony. It has the... Continue Reading →

The one common thread in all of the books that are falling apart on my shelf? Characters—flawed ones with desires and needs who spend most of the story tripping over their weaknesses in an effort to get what they want. — Becca Puglisi, "Getting to the Core of Character Motivation" All of life is surrounded... Continue Reading →

“Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.” – Kurt Vonnegut Does anyone else feel like they are a hot fudge sundae, and life has suited up in armor and chain mail, ready... Continue Reading →

“The greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances.”    ― Martha Washington Attitude is a choice.  My dad would always say this, his knee bent before me, grasping my shoulders as he forced my eyes up to meet his. There was never anger in his eyes,... Continue Reading →