What I like about math–scratch that; there’s nothing I like about math (when I was in Teacher’s College and learning about learning disabilities, I decided I could diagnosed myself with a learning disability about numbers 🙂 I swear! It’s why my pulse … Continue reading →

I’ve stopped writing. The clack of the keyboard has fallen silent. It’s the damn ending. I’m about three-quarters of the way through this draft and I’m at the point where I’ve introduced a new character. In my first iterations (my … Continue reading →

It’s true. I did. I shot Lyra at point blank range. In the chest. The proof (she and David, her guide in the Second World, are trying to escape from their captors): Lyra clasps her hands tighter around David’s arm; … Continue reading →

There’s a game my kids liked the play when they were little. It’s a double-sided board that stands vertically; on each side are rows of individual characters, some of whom share similar traits, such as glasses or hats or blonde … Continue reading →

I am Dr. Frankenstein. I am creating a monster (I assure you the novel, at the moment, is a beast). I am breathing new life into the thing by cannibalizing parts of other corpses, or, what we commonly refer to … Continue reading →

I can turn back time. I have the power to change the past. It’s a heady feeling, to not only have lives under my control, but to make them go back and do what I want.  When I started my first draft … Continue reading →

“Easy reading is damn hard writing.” — Nathaniel Hawthorne (author of The Scarlet Letter, 1850)    

I like baking. Better than cooking–the results are so much yummier. My kids like baking–so much so that they’ve branched out into “experiment baking”. They take ingredients used for, say, chocolate chip cookies and, without following a recipe, without measuring, … Continue reading →

Here I offer you The Beginner’s Guide to Effective, Unproductive Writing Procrastination, or, How to Waste Your Writing Time. Conditions necessary to be successful: You luck out with a significant chunk of time to write. You’re pleased because it rarely happens … Continue reading →

Trees. Damn trees. I’m still on the action sequence (see post “Action Sequences: the Movie Version”). I should have long ago cracked that nut and moved on. But I’m not because of the damn trees. David and Lyra are being … Continue reading →