For the last year and a half, I’ve been working on a novel. It’s not a terribly serious novel (a vampire romance with an intentionally ludicrous premise, which had no hope of marketability until the announcement of the newest Twilight book) born of a fun dream and the thought of what it might be like […]
Category: Writer Writing
Swallow my Pride and Buckle up for the Ride
My adult life keeps making me eat my words. I’m not. I can’t. I don’t. I don’t sew; I don’t knit. (Spoiler: I now do both of those.) So, so many I-can’t’s locked up in theatre, in being onstage. So much fear of being asked to do something awkward, embarrassing, uncomfortable when those described everything […]
‘Tis the season…for all the Help Wanted and Now Hiring signs. Welcome to tourist-land! Each sign and job posting I see makes me wonder: could I do it? Would I want to? I’m approaching an entire year of this “full time mom and creative” gig life and while Western culture has a greater awareness now […]
Nostalgia Stories
Nostalgia can be good. But it can also be bad. Like cheap hot cocoa mix with the tiny dehydrated marshmallows: I want it for the nostalgia, but invariably the marshmallows either have the crunch of chalk or dissolve into air like the illusions they are. My husband and I had this conversation tonight and it […]
Happy New Year’s Resolutions!
‘Tis the season…for making resolutions and setting goals! Once upon a time, I made new resolutions every new year and each one went the standard way of New Year’s resolutions: they quickly faded from memory. But over the last several years, I’ve become much better. Most of my tracking and public accountability is over at […]
Alliteration is Overrated
Who had the bright idea to make November National Novel Writing Month? I mean, four months out of the year have 30 days. So. Why November? No, this post will not explore the origins of NaNo. I just need to gripe. And, you know, reassure you that I’m still here. (Still figuring out how all […]
Being the Example I Wish I Had
A week ago, I came home from ReaderCon – something I felt sure was entirely off the table this year. But I went. With the baby. And what’s more, I participated in a tiny bit of programming: a live recording of The Word Count Podcast. Despite not having submitted anything in a long, long time. […]
Tired
To all the people who insisted that I wouldn’t know what tired was until I had a child of my own: no; tiredness and exhaustion are still the same old beasts. The only difference is that now I can’t just sleep the morning away to make up for the lack of sleep. Actually, I think […]
Sparking
In case you’re tired of me always talking about the baby, let me tell you about sparking. I don’t mean the white-blue sparks that that arc and buzz and pop in an electrical outlet gone haywire. That shit’s likely to burn your house down. Flip the circuit breaker and call an electrician. And if you […]
Goodbye, Ursula
Ursula K. Le Guin has never been on any list of my favorite writers or writerly influences, but she has is both of those. I have read embarrassingly little of her work, if for no other reason than I am that stubborn sort of person who the more you tell me I should do a […]
Melissa Burkart 