Dear friends and readers, August was a long month, and yet somehow it has nearly disappeared already. It was a big month for me. I did something I’ve never done before in my entire life: I sent a book manuscript to a publisher. Granted, the statistics on any author’s very first manuscript making its way from writer to slush pile…
Dear friends and readers, Throughout my adult life, I have found joy in volunteering for different nonprofits. This has included giving tours of Portland, Maine’s oldest cemetery, being a foster cat mom, being a trainwoman on the Portland Narrow Gauge Railroad, working at the library bookstore, and teaching computers to seniors. There is something satisfying to me in spending my…
National Novel Writing Month was not easy for me this year, but somehow I scraped past 50,000 words on November 29th, the day before it was all “over.” Of course, it’s not really over for me, and it won’t be this time for a while. This new novel I’m working on, Red Planet, feels different from the others that I’ve worked…
By Corissa Haury Yesterday morning my husband and I got out of bed at 7:15am. We were going to hunt for a house, a difficult task for any person. When it is cold, it is hard to rise from your warm cocoon of blankets. Those who live in the North have a formidable drive before them the day after a heavy snow. The roads…
By Corissa Haury She stood at the crossroads, where there were four stop signs. It was freezing. Her nose was numb. There were tiny frozen pieces of snow, ice, and her own frosty breath that framed her hood, closed as tight as she could manage without obscuring her vision. The sky was gray, flat. There was no active snow but for…
By Corissa Haury Writing a novel is not easy. Whether you put pen to paper, type on a typewriter, or use a tablet with a keyboard like me, you still have to do something hard. You have to write. You have to write a lot, too. 50,000 words in one month is no joke. The daily minimum to reach 50k is 1667 words,…
By Corissa Haury I can see the rectangular ship descending from just above the platform outside the entrance to the port. Its gleaming silver coat reflects some of the Sun’s luminescent, uncontrolled rays beaming through our solar system. The tainted glass on the ship’s bow indicates the cockpit. Its thrusters are on low. This is a class D civilian and cargo…
By Corissa Haury I am trembling with excitement and fear. I hold in my hands the last of my cash cards… The last of the money I need to leave. I have waited for over a year for this to happen. I finish closing the store as usual, knowing I will return tomorrow to work again. In my mind I plan…
The 5 Major Mind Melts of A Writer As a 20-something woman, I have forged through many preconceived notions about running, marriage, citizenry, tradition, education, history, America, and my own past. I continue to shed unhealthy misconceptions and open my heart to the billions of truths we encounter. The most intimidating obstacle, the longstanding wound on the flesh of my…
By C. E. Poley One of the things you discover during National Novel Writing Month (which I have sometimes participated in since 2008) is what kind of a writer you are. What I mean by that is, you discover all kinds of things about the ways that you like to write. For example, what your methods are, what your personal physical…
By C. E. Poley This is not really about a history of blogs. My father showed me how to express my curiosity about technology and writing at a young age. I started my first blog when I was 12. It was an HTML blog, all built in Notepad on our Windows…
What is it about the smell of ink or graphite on paper, the motion of letter after letter running together, that draws us to put physical form to our thoughts? My latest for Medium.
It feels good to start the new year off writing, that’s for sure. I didn’t think that I would be able to jump back in so quickly, but it’s always that initial hour push that gets me going. I’m glad I started working on A’s story again. He needs to be written; his story is screaming at me from the…
As the ever impending election approaches, I have been extremely loathe to say anything in public about it other than, “I’m washing my hands of this crap.” and even then, it’s still important to me and I’m still struggling with the idea of voting on Tuesday. That said, I do want to say what I think of Question 1, and…