Liz Flaherty's Blog, page 88

Mother's Day

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day, and in honor of the occasion I thought I’d talk about some of the mothers I’ve written. I find the relationship between mothers and their children, especially their daughters, endlessly fascinating. Like real life, sometimes the mother/child bond is strong and loving, but sometimes the opposite occurs. I enjoy writing about the loving relationships, but I love exploring the broken ones.


In my novella THE GIRL MOST LIKELY, Cara McLeod’s mother makes her life a trial. S...

Lessons from the Unemployed

What I’ve learned so far, now that I’m a Lady of Leisure... er, no longer employed: 1)     The dishes don’t do themselves. I knew that already, but was hoping it was some curse of the working stiff. Nope. It’s a universal problem.
2)     I can really get a lot accomplished when that pesky day job isn’t taking up all my time. Good thing, too, because I’ve had a lot of errands to run!
3)     “Meeting for lunch” is now a three-ho...

Marketing...it'll be fun, they said

Even though I've yet to publish a book, I sometimes spend time pondering (daydreaming??) about that day. And one of the things I ponder is marketing. How do you make a splash in such a big pond?

To that end, I've started collections of giveaways for various projects. 

Yesterday, I ordered magnets from Shutterfly with baseball quotes on them for one of my WIPs. A--they were free, I just had to pay shipping and B--I figure they'll mail cheaper than other things, like my tile coasters.

I have...

The Girls We Want To Be...

bebe is getting to that age I've never wanted her to reach. The age when girls start to hurt one another, just because they can. You know the age I'm talking about - the this girl isn't as smart/pretty/skinny/talented/rich/funny age. I kind of feel like it's too early for this age - I mean, she's 8, not 18. Also, I kind of hoped she'd get to skip it - I mean, isn't that what we were taught during all those After School Specials, half-hour family-based sit-coms, and teen movies? That if we jus...

I'm Sick . . . So You Get a Repeat . . .

. . . I hope you forgive me. It was either this or pictures of Grandboy, which I find endlessly fascinating, but have nothing to do with writing. This one is from last April, so it's not too dusty. Enjoy.


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Powering through @Liz Flaherty

The pastor asked last week during his sermon what I did when I was blocked, when the words just weren't there. He caught me unaware, so my answer was neither profound nor well thought out. I said, paraphrasing here, that you just power through and do it because it's, well...it's just what you do.

So yesterday I came into the office to write my post for this morning. And I had nothing. The post I'd planned went onto the page like a series of unconnected words. If I were reading blogs on Monday...

What's in a Name?

by Jack Dorsey in FlickrI read an article in my local newspaper recently about three women who’ve founded a support group of sorts based on their shared first name. The Lois Club of Manitoba is literally just that – a club for Loises. These women are connected only by their first names. The interviewed women mentioned that they didn’t particularly like their name when they were young. Though there are a few famous Loises – Lois Lane comes to mind – it’s never been a wildly popular name. Over...

Don't Let the Sun Go Down

by Ava Cuvay

Last Friday was my last day at the day job. After having a month to emotionally prepare for the inevitable, I was in a good mind-set. I’d been through most of the stages of mourning for the job—and the co-workers—I was losing. Since this was a company merger, many of us were in the same boat. A merger means change for everyone, those leaving as well as those staying on. And I think everyone felt that “ending” keenly.

I couldn’t have scripted a better last day. Fortune was on our si...

Finding Our Way

by Margie Senechal

Yesterday we got a respite from the rain and had a nice, sunny day. Being my day off, I ventured out into the yard. My scary, scary, yard.

I decided to tackle the blackberries that have taken over the corner of the patio. About a month ago, I took the dog out and noticed that there were gaps in the brambles. I thought, if only the rain would stop, I might be able to get to the mother stalk and end the life of this unwanted invader. 

There's an early episode of Star Trek:T...

@AuthorKristina Knight's new book + a Giveaway

Hey, everyone! It's release week, and I'm super-duper-excited (as I always am!). Famous in a Small Town is the first book in my brand-new series, set in my fictional small town of Slippery Rock. I've wanted to write a small town series for a long time, and I've wanted to write about the kind of place where I grew up for a long time...and so Slippery Rock is the culmination of both of those things - a small, lake town in Missouri, filled with people who (I hope) become as real to you as they h...