Liz Flaherty's Blog, page 80

Revision Hell

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...the breathings of your heart...

"Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.” –William Wordsworth
I’m having trouble with the book I’m writing. This isn’t news to anyone—I’ve been whining about it for weeks now. It’s better—I’ve at least had a few days with four-figure word counts, but not very many. I’m still not sure about how the book is going. Or if it will go at all. Occasionally I will read over an entire scene and wonder what on earth it’s doing there—it does nothing, not a single, solitary thing, to move the s...

Don't Quit Your Day Job?

I’m writing this shortly after getting home from the day job, and I’m wondering if it’s time to pack it in.

Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy going to my office to see my colleagues, both the human and the canine ones. (I’ve written before about our dog-friendly office.) I like the work. But I’ve got a lot of irons in the fire right now, writing-wise, and I’m finding it harder to find the time to do the things I want/need to do.

The last couple of days we’ve been working with our accountant on our an...

The Bane of Blurb-Writing

Last week, I struggled to write about 1,000 words. And the worst part of that fairly low number is the fact that I was really just re-writing and perfecting the same 215 words over and over and over again. I was writing the blurb for my third book. And it was a long, painful process.

Take your 90K+ story and concentrate it down to two-three paragraphs, keeping only the most important themes and details, and written in a manner that entices… that “sells” your book. No pressure, here. Unless yo...

by Margie Senechal It's another day, another w...

 by Margie Senechal
 
It's another day, another week, and another time where I have to admit, I have nothing. Nada. Zilch.
My mind has been everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Anyone else having this problem?

 At the end of June, one of my best friends had a heart attack and then he had double-bypass surgery a couple weeks later. He's doing well, but still working on his stamina. We've spent a few of my days off over the past few weeks taking walks in Portland.

That is how much...

Spam...And Not the Meat-In-a-Can-Kind

I'm baffled. My guru for my personal website has done all he can to prevent me from being spammed—you know when some robot trashes your blog with about a hundred comments, selling everything from luggage to t-shirts to medicines to make a body part that I don't even own work better? It seems when I post more frequently than once a week, I end up coming in to clean out a ton of spam. The good news is all comments have to be approved by me, so none of this crap is ever seen by my readers. But g...

Gifts and givers

I think about gifts...write about them...hug them close sometimes to get through hard days. I've just had a lovely weekend with Duane, going to a place he remembers from childhood and I cherish because I've been there with him so often. The picnic at St. Theresa of Avila Church in Payneville, Kentucky is a gift in and of itself, with great food, a terrible bingo game I've never won even once, and a sense of community that enriches everyone who goes there.


As I work in the office, Duane plays m...

Summer Reading

For a lot of people, summer is a time for reading. What’s better than reading on a blanket at the beach? Or snuggling with a favorite book in a hammock at the cottage? The great thing about reading is that you can do it anywhere. One of my favorite places to read is at home on my deck. And I do a lot of reading on long road trips – print books when my husband is driving and audiobooks when I am.

I’d like to share some of the books I’m reading this summer, and I’d love if you can tell me what y...

Bad Books and the Reader who Hates Them

Happy Friday Wranglers! My post-RWA Conference weeks have been a flurry of activity and I can’t
believe we’re already well into August! Aside from catching up on my z’s and pondering all my conference learnings, I closed on my mother’s house, sent the kiddos off for their first few days of school, returned to writing on my third book with a surprising amount of renewed focus, and promised hubby I’d start a serious job search this month. So, to recap: yay, yay, YAY, blech. ;-)

But what I really...

The Books We Love

by Margie Senechal

Yesterday was Book Lovers Day. I'd have to say just about every day is book lovers day for me--be it my own project at the time or somebody else's book. I think these days we all need a means of escape.

Have you ever noticed that when a nation magazine--like People or EW--interviews an author, they generally ask a few similar questions. There's usually one about what book made you a reader and it's sibling, what book made you a writer? And there's always one about your favori...