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The Queen of Kansas

Publishing The Queen of Kansas was a new experience. My good friend, Dewey Watson who, with his wife, Susan, wrote and published a terrific book, Shift and Shout, had enjoyed working with Amazon’s Create Space and suggested I look into it. I was tentative because I wasn’t sure how it worked or, more to the […]

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And Now For The Hard Part

Now that I’ve finished my new book, The Queen of Kansas, of course I’m relieved and pleased to have gotten this far.  The problem is I’m in what for me is the toughest phase of the whole enterprise.  That is, waiting for a small group of family and friends to finish reading the draft and providing me their feedback. For the past couple of years, The Queen

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Do You Know When to Stop?

One of the challenges of writing or speaking is to know when enough’s been said and it’s time to stop.  I wish there was a test to make clear when I’d finished.  If such exists, I haven’t found it. Because I’ve recently completed a draft of a new book, endings are very much on my mind. The book has the working title, The

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If You Only Just Ask

As I’ve written before, my new book involves a lot of research and since parts of it are loosely based on events in the life of my family, I’ve become an Ancestry.com addict. Over these past couple of months, what has been so remarkable has been the generosity of persons I’ve asked for help.  I

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And here’s how it’s working

In my last blog, I talked about my “hummingbird” approach to writing — all fits and starts and never letting yourself assume that you can only write when and if you have long, uninterrupted blocks of time.  Yes, it works, but do I yearn for long, uninterrupted blocks?  Of course! A progress report.  My current

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Write Like A Hummingbird

Since my last blog in which I bemoaned what has become (temporarily, I hope) an all-consuming focus on things canine, I’ve actually discovered a way to write. It’s true, that Mischa, the Newfoundland, is by my side 90 percent of the times.  That’s because I’m under strict orders from the vet not to let her play,

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What I’m Working On Now

Now that I’ve finished the film treatment for “I Love You, California!” I’m moving on to a new, challenging and exciting project.  But what happens with the film treatment, you ask? Stuff it in a drawer?  Honestly, I’m not sure.  I’ve never done anything like that before and so I’m unsure about next steps.  I

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In the Moment

Now that summer is winding down, I’ve launched a new writing project and boy . . . does that feel good. Summer is a busy time for me. Luisa and I receive (and welcome!) many out-of-town family members and friends, either in Sebastopol or at the farm. This is also the time that my work

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Writing and the Art of Fermentation

Over the past ten years, I’ve written five full-length plays, four short plays, one full-length historic reenactment, one full-length film treatment, two books of short fiction and one published memoir. Spelled out, it seems a respectable list, but on those days when writing is the last thing I’m able to manage, I grow critical for not

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Writing the Literary Memoir

For a couple of years, Luisa attended summer writing workshops at Cannon Beach, Oregon. One of the workshop presenters was poet and author, Judith Barrington. The first book of Judith’s that I read was Lifesaving: A Memoir. This powerful story of a young woman coming to terms with the accidental death of her parents was

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