Love that word, maelstrom. The Scandinavian word maelström was introduced into English by Edgar Allen Poe, and anyone who knows my love for things dark and on the outskirts of mainstream, Poe has got to be a favorite of mine. But maelstrom is defined as a powerful whirlpool. And that's what my muse has been dragging me through as new story ideas and plot enhancements to WIPs have been taking me by storm. 

I have yet another story that has yanked my attention away from Tree of Life. It's a fan...
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For every writer, the process of creation is different. What inspires us is unique. The birth of a story, the whispers of a character, all come to us in a potpourri of ways. I recently attended a mini-writers conference with a fellow writer and good friend, Eisley Jacobs. The meetup was free--Sacramento Writers Who Mean Business, hosted by these lovely ladies (known as the Michel(l)es) --and the key note speaker was an author of a middlegrade book, Karen Kostlivy. She spoke to us of her journ...
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So, yeah. About that novel. Ahem. Supposed to finish it, I thought. This last weekend. Writer's block and all. Well, that wen't...badly.

I didn't even crack it open. For one, I don't have a lap top {an aside: in fact, I just bought one of these in almost perfect working condition (just needs grease) and according to its serial number, it's a 100 year old typerwriter--and no, I'm not an anti-tech person, quite the opposite, we just don't have the funds for a lap top}, and finding a print place ...
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So, I'm stuck. I'm stuck and unsatisfied. Despite all efforts I'm where I was six months ago with the Gingerbread. Unhappy, forcing things unnaturally and because of that, parts of the story are implausible. To remedy this, I braved the sweltering heat and bought four books in the genre I write.

I had, for a long time, eyed this one particular book. More drawn to the story of the author, I decided to pick up Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. At first, I wasn't impressed. It remi...

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