All Things Writing

The Craft of Writing

Category Archives: Blog


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QuickBooks Questions

Certified-QuickBooks-Online-ProAdvisorI’ve noticed a lot of recent activity on my QuickBooks posts. Rather than write a new post that may or may not meet your needs, how about if you feel free to ask me your five most pressing QuickBooks questions? I’ll create posts that answer those questions. While I’m at it, I’ll create a FAQ.

Why ask me? I’m QuickBooks Pro Certified. I also teach a QuickBooks online class at the local woman’s business center, have an MBA in Finance, and have taught business courses at the local community college. I’m  a writer who has used QuickBooks for my own writing business for years.

Why am I suggesting this?   Continue reading →


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Favorite Childhood Games

Musical ChairsIt’s occurred to me that the games we loved or hated as kids actually tell us a lot about ourselves as adults. I know. It’s the kind of thing you think about when listening to your child conjugate verbs before a quiz, but sometimes that’s all the time you’ve got…

I hated musical chairs. I hated the anxiety of waiting for the music to end. I hated the physical confrontation with the kid who was trying to push me off the chair we both needed. In short – I was a musical chair weenie who did not feel the Fun with Dick and Jane magic of the moment.

I loved kick the can. Racing up to send that can soaring and running on to hide again – I was born for that. Same for kickball. The ball was so big and soft, it wasn’t going to hurt anyone. Plus, you were aiming for the legs. All you needed to do was kick your hardest and run like crazy.   Continue reading →


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Happy New Year

WhyWeWrite

More to come!!!!


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2014 Organized or Bust

orderchaos_xlI’m determined to be more organized in 2014. I know, everyone says things at the start of a new year that they mean but don’t achieve. I think this year it is a matter of do it or give it up entirely. So here goes.

I. I broke the things requiring my attention into categories. I figure my span of control is about five categories – there’s that MBA piping in again. So far I’ve used four and they are, in no particular order:

  1. Speculative projects – Queries, Blogging, Platform, Freelance
  2. Contracted projects – Client1, Client2, Client3, Client4
  3. Continuing education – Certifications, Conferences, Reading
  4. Family/Household – Kids, Household

…
II. I have one marble notebook that has all the ToDos. I’ve been using it since August and it is working better than any ToDo scheme ever. Continue reading →


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Crossword Anniversary

Crossword

Unknown

The 100th anniversary of the first crossword by Arthur Wynne.

PS Who remembers the NY Times crosswords by my man, Eugene Maleska.


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The Things They Carried

UnknownI just finished reading The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien. This stunning book is comprised of related short stories that are based on O’Brien’s experiences in Viet Nam. That makes them war stories, but labeling them as such imposes a genre on writing that is so incredible it defies a designation. These stories are of struggle, excruciating choices, love, loss, and celebration. O’Brien’s strong and masterful voice leads you through it all.

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Who Owns the Story?

Family_lThe conventional wisdom is to write what you know. If you’ve led a full and exciting life, that’s probably good advice. If you’re just starting out, that leaves you to compete at the end of the gene pool with everyone else who is just starting out. Then again, you could truly write what you know – write about your life experiences. That begs the woefully unoriginal question – Who Owns the Story?

You might think that the story of you life is your story. Why even stop to think about it? Then again, your life story is linked forever to the life story of your siblings, parents, friends … Is there a point at which their expectation of privacy outweighs your right of self expression? Do they even have a legitimate expectation of privacy?   Continue reading →


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Finding Inspiration

imagesAs it stands now, I am behind in Nano and have not even a topic in mind for the science writing workshop I’m ecstatic to be attending in the spring. So what am I totally into writing about in my write-whatever-i-want-time? Science fiction as a genre. Does this have anything to do with Nano or the science writing workshop? Of course not.

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Muddy Boots

This artist is amazing. Check out her blog!


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Dystopian Literature: Dune

Dune_1stI started reading Dune last week. It wasn’t until mention was made of the melting polar ice caps that Frank Herbert’s prescience struck me. Dune was published in 1965. It immediately won the Hugo and the very first Nebula. Those are surely reasons enough to read this scifi novel, but for me there is something more. With Dune I glimpse the adult vision of the future that was taking hold at the same time I was being asked to formulate my own nine-year old view of that future.
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