If there’s one thing Southern gals know how to do, it’s gab. Silly or serious, all it takes is a glass of iced tea and time. Pull up a chair, kick off your shoes, and make yourself comfy…get ready to dish!
Block, or What?
More cleaning of the cabinets today, since les élèves are taking an exam, and of course I get sidetracked by a book. Miracle’s Boys, by Jacqueline Woodson. One thing leads to another, I end up at her website, and I find this: I don’t believe there is any such thing as Writer’s Block. I think it’s just your mind telling you that the thing you’re writing isn’t the thing you really want to be writing. If this happens to me, I start writing something else. Okay, she has a point. I just wish it weren’t quite so, erm, pointy. I’m...
read more10 Awesome Bands
Foo FightersRed Hot Chili PeppersR.E.M.U2The PoliceBarenaked LadiesRushJimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer BandTom Petty and the HeartbreakersThe Rolling Stones
read moreSuccess Looks Like…
…this fabulous young woman, who is now a proud graduate of the University of Florida. Prior to joining the Gator Nation, I taught her in my AP English class. She started hyphenating her last name with mine at the tops of her papers and calling me “Mom,” so of course, “Mom” was in the O’Connell Center this morning taking pictures and beaming alongside her actual for-real mom. They don’t tell you that these moments are the bonus pay you’ll get when you become a teacher. They are so worth...
read moreDo Clichés Matter?
Stumbled across an interesting article online at the Entertainment Weekly site. With a title like “24 Rom-Com Clichés We’d Retire,” how could I not explore? Although they presented good reasons for their choices, I can’t say I completely agree with them. They also definitely missed some of the things that drive me nuts. Here’s a rundown of their nitpicks:Media Mavens (13 Going on 20) – Heroines with glamorous jobs in publishing? I thought that went out with the pink-cover chick lit tide. I adore chick lit,...
read moreNovel Hybrids
One of the highlights of reading Jincy Willett’s sly, entertaining novel The Writing Class were the gems she dropped carelessly along the way, the blog posts “authored” by the novel’s central character Amy Gallup, who was published too quickly and now endures the ignominy of college extension fiction writing classes to pay the rent and keep her flatulent Bassett hound, Alphonse, in kibble.Along with lists of funny-looking words and sexy alphabet letters (B, V, and Y, if you’re curious) are some marvelous novel...
read more10 Words People Would Use to Describe You
EnergeticCreativeFocusedHappyGoofySmartTalentedDedicatedContraryPolite
read moreThey Built Excitement
I’d been expecting this news all weekend, but it was still sad to read that the Pontiac division of GM will be closing as part of its restructuring. This is a little like when they shaved off Oldsmobile a couple of years ago, but closer to the bone: my first car I ever bought for myself was a Pontiac. A midnight blue 1986 Pontiac Sunbird SE 2-door coupe, to be exact. Man, was I proud of that car! The fact that it was a ginormous trade up from the first car I drove–a 1976 Chevy Caprice Classic Estate station wagon, you know, the...
read moreYear Without Shopping
My friend Desiree is pretty much every average woman’s nightmare. She’s highly intelligent, has a fierce sense of honor, never gains an ounce, and is a walking clothes hanger. Literally. Desiree loves fashion and shopping.Despite all these flaws (virtues?), she’s engaging and thoughtful, so even though you could hate her, you don’t. This year, Desiree has launched a project, the Year Without Shopping. She’s determined to make it an entire year without shopping for new clothing.When she told me of her goal, her...
read moreTigger vs. Eeyore
Normal me:Today me:My sisters would find this whole discussion trés interessant, since they are both self-confessed Eeyores, ready with an “Oh, bother!” at many of life’s travails. I, on the other hand, tend to be that annoying optimist who looks for the pony at the bottom of the pile of manure. You know, bouncy trouncy flouncy pouncy fun-fun-fun-fun-fun!!Except for lately. It’s probably the constant drain of too much stuff in the house and seemingly no time to get it all straightened out–and that’s not...
read more#writerfail
As a writer still camped on the canyon rim across from PublishedLand, I’m very lucky to have landed a fabulous agent. A combination of research, timing, and luck managed to part the clouds and let the angels sing for me, and I assume that any writer still looking for an agent would be serious about making the right match. That means researching what they represent, reading their contracted authors, following their blogs, meeting them in person (if at all possible), and then sending in a query, crossing your fingers, and praying for the...
read more
