Liz Flaherty's Blog, page 151

Check Those Facts...It's Critical

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..and whiskers on kittens...

Is that not a cool title for a blog post? And, no, it has nothing to do with anything. I just liked it. In my next life I will have a glorious voice and sing my way through the Alps.                It grieves me to admit this, but I might have the slightest tendency toward being bossy. I shouldn’t really mind this all that much since sometimes it’s necessary to be the yes-right-now decision maker. However, if you knew...

It's Friday--Question Day!

Whoa, Friday sneaked up on us, so we've spent the morning coming up with a question and some answers. Since we are all serious writers, it seemed necessary that we have a profound question. Much brow-sweating going on...and here we go...

How do YOU cook a turkey?

Kristi (who cooks hers upside down and started this whole quest for the perfect turkey cooking method): I don't use a bag, I use a disposable roasting pan, but yeah: turkey is breast-side down for moisture and I put a tinfoil 'ten...

A little bit of this, a little bit of that...

I don't know what to write. I have no idea. So, you know what that means?

Hodge-Podge!

Last night, my girls and I went to an early premiere of Mockingjay, the third movie in the Hunger Games series. 

It was my first time sitting in Cinetopia's Parlor Room. And it was super comfy. We were part of a special event screening put together by a friend of KB's. 

 I devoured the Hunger Games books and look forward to each movie with great anticipation and they have yet to let me down.

When...

First Snows and Getting Started

Our first snowfall of the season began Sunday night around 9PM. That picture was what we woke up to Monday morning. I'm positive this isn't the earliest it has ever snowed in our area...but it is the earliest we've had snow since RadioMan and I moved up here. It wasn't much, just over a n inch. Enough to cover the ground and bring down a lot more leaves.

bebe, of course, squealed around the house all morning, excited to play with her friends at school.  They didn't get to play in it, thou...

Welcome Liz Kelly!

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Finding the connection

My husband—that’s him, the cute one on the right—is a music guy. He writes some and sings a lot. He plays the guitar on a daily basis and has for all the years I’ve known him. Just as I salivate over new laptops and sewing machines, he can stand and look at a new guitar long enough to memorize the grain in the wood before picking it up and playing it. When he finds one with a good tone and a neck that feels good under his fingers, I may as well go shopping elsewhere and come back later to pic...

Jan Scarbrough on Finding Characters

Do you put people you know into your books?
How many times have I been asked that? The ladies in accounting once asked my husband (then my boy friend) if he was the inspiration for all of my love scenes. He blushed and ducked quickly out of the cubicle.
Robert McKee (author of Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting) talks about this very thing in his presentation at the Chicago RWA convention in 1999. I recently listened again to the tape.
Writers watch people, h...

Blame It On The Muse

Every October I get bit by the NANO bug. I plan what I'm going to write. I write a blog announcing my intention and I update my NANO page with my new title and a blurb. I seriously consider going to the Halloween midnight write-in at PDX--but never seem to get there.

Then November is here. And the words aren't.

You'd think I'd get a clue. But, I always have faith that my muse will come out to play and bless me with fresh ideas and a bounty of verbs.

This year, the Fates have conspired with the e...

Finding The Right Fit

I'm going to start this post with a disclaimer: I'm in not a Professional Agent Hunter. I've had one agent in my career and I love her. She gets my writing, she gets me and she works hard. What works for me, though, may not work for you. Okay, we can get on with things.

For all the fun parts of writing there are - creating, researching, extreme situations - there are also not-so-fun parts. There are the rejections from publishers. There are bad reviews. There is the slush pile. Sure, The Call...