A Work in Progress

I've been down-for-the-count with a cold I caught from my youngest son. The irony of this all is that I assumed I would get even more writing done now that he's in school, having just begun all day kindergarden. While I do have uninteruppted time, being sick is not condusive to writing, especially when all I want to do is lie down. So, yes, it's an excuse. But hey, it's legitimate. Now, something for you: Have you heard about Hallmark's card contest? They have one or two contests every month devoted to great pictures -- and most importantly, well placed and perfect writing to go with it -- by people like us, and NOT their in-house writers. Here is an example, as I won one of their contests last year. If you're like me, you have a ton of pictures on the computer that are going to waste. And if you're a writer,  then this is the perfect contest for you. Go to Hallmark today and find out the latest contest. Enter it and you never know ... the whole world may s

Calling all children and young-adult writers! If you haven't heard about the most educational, fun, crazy and inspirational three days of our writing year, then you MUST go to Writeoncon.com and sign up for  hours of packed, fun-filled days of writing skills, tips, trade secrets, author- advice and agent-wisdom. This is some of best stuff you'll ever find in one place (Well, other than a writer's conference in person). But, that's what writeoncon is. A conference, but online - and one that you writers can't miss. It starts the 16th and goes through the 18th. Sign up today. And get this: it's all FREE! Writeoncon Be there (in your sweats, with coffee and chocolate in copious amounts)!

Though I've briefly written about this before, in a previous blog post When Not to Write , I wanted to go into further detail about the notion of creativity in writing and movie-viewing. Though I don't recommend writing after watching a movie (as the writing can be horrific, like a knock-off Gucci bag to the real thing) there is something to be said for finding a way to rejuvenate the ideas and inspiration we once had for a story, or novel when watching something both amazing, and inspirational. For example, last week, I went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2. While JK Rowling's writing is pretty much INCREDIBLE (that lady is a master of storytelling), what really lights my writing fire is knowing that her ideas, her brain activity and education, actually went somewhere ... as in phenomenal, once-in-a-lifetime, everyone-loves-you, let's-make-a-movie-out-of-all-your-books type of success. And sitting in the ice-cold theater, with the AC set at 65 degre