Writer-in-Residence BlogTag

Waking Up My Writing with a Jolt of First Love

I don’t think you ever get over falling in love with a horse.That first love is all absorbing. It awakens every sensation. Sense of smell, taste, touch, hearing –– all vibrate. It is all consuming, ...

Writing from Pictures

I use photographs as a starting point for writing. Maybe that’s because my writing is historically based. But it’s also because I am interested in starting from a real person and spinning off into ...

Writing What You Don't Know

Write what you know. It’s an adage you are always told as a beginning writer.My first book was definitely written because of what I knew. I had been teaching a studio course on the development of Western ...

Rejection

No one likes rejection. I’ve been told that some people handle it better than others. It depends on your baggage.I had my first official manuscript rejection when I was nine years old. I received a ...

Writing From Life

These Are Not the Words is a semi-autobiographical novel.That means there are real people in it who do imaginary things, and imaginary people who do real things. I am not Miranda Billie Taylor, but we ...

Late Bloomers

I come from a family of late bloomers.Or at least, that’s the story I tell myself when I try to deal with the disappointment of not having been an outrageous success in my 20s and 30s, when I was precocious ...

Happy St. David's Day

Happy St. David’s Day!St. David is the patron saint of Wales, and every March 1st I make Welsh cakes. A Welsh cake is like a pancake –– you cook it on a griddle. It’s also like a scone –– ...

I am a celebrationist

I am a celebrationist.I celebrate big things and small things, all the things, really—kids getting their final molars, the anniversary of my fella and I meeting, the first day of summer (and fall and ...

Writing + Joy = A Revelation

For years I believed I was only a writer if I wrote every day. I would wake up early and take my laptop to the coffee shop nearby and sit in the corner and write. Words and words and coffee and more ...

Letters that were never intended for me

It’s no secret that I love letter writing. My debut novel, Letters to Amelia, is full of them, and I even created an entire community arts project based around the power of writing letters. But with ...