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Showing posts from September, 2026

When You Don't Know What to Write. 10 Questions

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  Ten Questions Ten Questions to Ask (and answer) when you don’t know what to write about. 1)     How’s the weather? The heat is on….it may be looking like autumn somewhere with mornings starting to cool and kids standing at bus stops. But here? In Florida? It is hot! H-O-T.    2)     What’s for dinner? Leftovers or “make-overs.” It’s simply too hot to cook. See number one.   3)     What’s on television? Uh... the same thing that was on yesterday. Lots of political ads and old westerns. I think I’ll take the old westerns. At least in the westerns I can tell who the bad guys are…most of the time.   4)     What’s the cat up to? At the moment, Tilisthtyeing to he[pme tutoppe. Translation: Tiki is trying to help me type. She jumped down off my lap now… neotjw sheh ois bck.   5)     Have you seen today’s news? Yep. Pretty much an illustration of my morning Bible reading in Exodus 20 on wh...

Times of Conflict, Times of Peace

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  Times of conflict, Times of Peace So, you want to play some Football? Ever feel conflicted? You know…you wish you could have everything turn out right for all sides? But of course, that can’t always happen. When I’m reading a book or writing one, I can become so invested in my characters, I want the story to end “happily ever after” for everyone. For all the “good guys” anyway. And I secretly harbor the notion that the villains in my stories learn from their mistakes and change their evil ways. Of course that’s not always true to life. After church this past Sunday, Mike I and tuned into an NFL game. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Ohio playing against the Cincinnati Bengals. I remember going door to door in my college years at the University of South Florida gaining signatures for Tampa to get an NFL team. I remember living through those first few years of losing game after game. It was tough.  When Tom and I moved to Cincinnati, we were still Buccaneer fans. At least for the f...
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MY TAKE  ON EDITING I’m working on a new book. I actually have at least four other books outlined and several children’s books I’ve never published, but the one I’m crafting now is moving along. The issue my main character is facing is one of stolen identity. I’ll share more later, but the topic of the day is EDITING.  Editing is a big issue. I broach it for two reasons. First, I’ve met a few people of late who think editing is merely a matter of spelling and punctuation.  AS A FORMER AGENT I MET SAYS, "This is why the world needs editors!" I actually had someone say, “Spell check or something will fix it. That’s what I do. If the word is red or something, I find the right spelling.”  That’s only part of it. Proofreading usually catches those errors if your computer didn’t.  Then…there’s also developmental editing. That’s when you discover there are holes in your plot that need to be addressed.  And there is fact checking. I write fiction, but I am always f...

Writers Roost Part 2

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  Don’t Ask Me! I came to Writer’s Roost to work. (If you missed that story about my new writing getaway, click HERE )  Anyway, I’ve been sitting here looking at the lake and being tempted by the pool as I’m trying to make a “book trailer” for my latest book,  Corners and Straight Edges.  I watched a YouTube video on Canva on how to make a book trailer. I wrote the script. I chose the background and all the elements. I started putting the thing together and for some reason, they came out in a different order. And the background disappeared. Don’t ask me how I did that.  I have no clue. So… I started over. I watched another tutorial and thought I had it nailed.  Nope. The one victory is…  I did not cry. This time.  While I embrace most technology…well,  some  technology, I struggle learning new ways to use it. I don’t dare ask for help. The answer always seems to start with…“All you have to do is…” Still, it is a part of today’s...