Bev Pettersen's Blog, page 35

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I’m feeling rather melancholy today – we buried the matriarch of our family after being fortunate enough to have her on this earth for 96 years. She was my grandfather’s sister and she embodies so much of the good, loving happiness I equate with my family, both immediate and extended. I spent so many years of my childhood in her home, hearing her voice, her stories and her laughter. Holidays were spent together, summer picnics and major events, from weddings to births to the funerals of other...

Share A Snippet!!

We’re 16 days into the 2018 Winter Writing Festival, and participants have spun out hundreds of thousands of new words, whether joining in the rsswwf.com writing sprints or working in the privacy of their own writing caves. 

I love hearing folks in the Chat Room come back after  20 or 30 or 45 minutes of sprinting and say, “I wrote 673 new words!” or “I finished a chapter of my time-travel romance!”

All that wonderful writing didn’t exist before the Festival began, and now it’s HERE!!

Four ye...

Week Two Check-In for the Winter Writing Festival!

The Eighth Annual Ruby Slippered Sisterhood Winter Writing Festival is going strong, with the Ruby Sisters and dozens of writing cohorts writing their fingers to the bone! As of yesterday we have officially completed our SECOND FULL WEEK, so today it’s check in time!

If you’re reading this on the Festival website (the blue site), jump on over to the regular Ruby Slippered Sisterhood blog ( the ruby-colored site, at rubyslipperedsisterhood.com) and leave a quick comment about your experience w...

Fun with Names

I love naming my characters. It’s fun to think through the millions of possibilities, picking each name for its perfect sound, its underlying meaning, the uncertainty of not knowing if someone will be insulted when I use it.

Think about Fitzwilliam Darcy, a name that fills the mind with a proud, handsome man who quietly longs for love.  If Jane Austen had named him Percival Stonestreet instead, that would have created an entirely different image. And what about the name Reyes? It just sounds...

Using the Power of Words to Reach Your Goals

This is the time of year when we make goals or think about where we want to go or what we want to do in life. Some of us make lists with steps. Some of us just ponder or “dream.” Wherever you fall on the goals measuring line, I have a powerful tool to help you reach them. The tool is called a positive affirmation.

You may have heard of them before, but are you using them? Hmmm…? Even though I know how helpful these statements are, I stop doing them too. So, let’s take a little refresher toge...

The Writer’s High

You know that feeling, when you’re in the zone and the words are flowing and something a little bit magical happens, when it feels like the story takes over and you’re just the vessel it flows through?  Your awareness of your body fades away.  You forget to be hungry.  Or tired.  Or care about the fact that you haven’t showered in three days.  Maybe (like me) you respond to questions without remembering what you said and eat everything that’s open on your desk without any memory of doing it. ...

It’s the Week One Check-In for the Winter Writing Festival!!!

The Eighth Annual Ruby Slippered Sisterhood Winter Writing Festival is fabulously under way, with the Ruby Sisters and dozens of their always-talented friends writing their hearts out! Yesterday we completed our FIRST FULL WEEK, so today it’s time to officially check in!

If you’re reading this on the Festival website (the blue site), jump on over to the regular Ruby Slippered Sisterhood blog ( the ruby-colored site, at rubyslipperedsisterhood.com) and leave a quick comment about your experien...

I HATE MY DAY JOB

Virtually every day in the WWF chatroom a writer kicks the cyber garbage can as they exit the room.  Why? Because they need to stop working on their WIP and head to the job that pays their bills. I empathize with them, because for more than a decade I felt the same exact way. I hated stopping in mid-page and heading out the door.

I know when I started out that I had this vision of spending my days staying home, working at my passion. I’d be there to greet the kids when they arrived home from...

Welcome to Week 2!

Welcome to week 2 of the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood Winter Writing Festival! We’re now a full 5 days in to the Winter Writing Festival and the excitement and enthusiasm that pushed us over the starting line has begun to even out a bit. We’ve had a few sprints under our belt and a few days of fresh or revised words and a few days to get used to our new goals.

How are you doing?

If you’ve hit your goals every day or on track for the first full week’s check in, go you!! You’ve worked hard and are...

Body language – an author’s occupational hazard

My best friend and I were sitting at lunch the other day, and a hot guy walked by. So I said, “That guy is hot.” (I’m eloquent that way.)

“Would you say that in front of your husband?” she asked.

“Sure would, and he doesn’t mind.”

She expressed some disbelief on his behalf, but it’s the truth. It has to be. It’s my job to notice people.

All authors have to be masters at description, and human beings are mainly what we describe. A story is mostly about what our characters think and how they a...