Linda K. Sienkiewicz's Blog, page 26

Unreliable Witness

The Paint Creek Trail in Michigan

How accurate of a witness do you think you’d make? I was left wondering about my own abilities after being in the middle of a scary situation one Saturday afternoon.

It started as an ordinary ride

The afternoon was sultry and hot as I rode my bicycle along Paint Creek Trail, Michigan, a rail trail where the crushed limestone path often widens and narrows. This beautiful shaded trail is shared by walkers, bicyclists, joggers, parents pushing strollers, dog wal...

3 Reasons Why Women are Uniquely Suited to be Authorpreneurs

Today’s blog is a guest post on women’s unique talents in the writing world, from author and motivational speaker, Colleen M. Story:

I’ve taught a number of writing workshops over the past few years. One thing I’ve noticed is that increasing numbers of women are working on writing-based businesses.

They’re writing and publishing books, but that’s not all. They’re marketing, selling, freelance writing and editing, creating online workshops, offering writing services to clients, and more.

In...

The Heart of Storytelling

These fabulous “rules” (I prefer to call them writing tips) for storytelling were handed out at a recent conference with credit to Pixar Story Artist Emma Coats. I refer to them often, so I thought I’d share.

Start storytelling!

Once upon a time there was _________. Every day, ________. Because of that, _________. Because of that, ________. Until finally, __________.

THEME: Trying for a theme is important, but you many not see what the
story is actually about till you write the end.

ENDINGS...

How to Make a Literary Scarf

Lovers of the written word:

The late Mary Oliver’s poetry is both brilliant, down to earth, and so often quoted. I’ve seen literary scarves with text from Pride and Prejudice, Alice in Wonderland, the Raven, and even Maya Angelou’s poetry, but I haven’t found anything with Mary Oliver’s. My solution: hand letter a literary scarf myself.

I used a yellow and white infinity scarf from a local boutique. The material is a nylon/polyester blend, but a smooth cotton might work well, too.

A few tips...

What, Why, How: Kathie Giorgio

What: 

I’m a writer and I have been for my entire life. I create short stories, novels, poetry, and essays. No matter what I’m writing, I tend to focus on social issues, often touching on subjects that need light and understanding shed on them. I also focus on the language, making sure my prose and poetry both are lyrical, sounding beautiful, even if they are about dark subjects. I create pieces that drive people to think and to consider, even if these are subjects that they don’t want to pa...

What, Why, How: Jean Alicia Elster

What:

As a professional writer, I have produced works in multiple genres: I have edited and ghostwritten several nonfiction books. Also, my memoir-based essays have appeared in national publications including Ms., World Vision, Black Child, and Christian Science Sentinel magazines. However, even in the midst of those projects, my primary focus has remained writing works of youth fiction. This includes crafting youth lit passages for a national testing service, creating a four-volume picture...

What, Why, How: Jessica L. Walsh

What:

I write poetry and a very occasional essay. I’ve been writing poetry since elementary school, and though I’ve tried to recall what prompted me to start, I honestly cannot remember. I wonder sometimes if it’s in my blood. My late grandmother, who was a difficult and emotionally distant person in daily life, nevertheless experienced a private, intense love of poetry. I’ve heard stories that she would prop a book up on her ironing board and sometimes become so engrossed that she’d burn o...

What, Why, How: Mary Jo Firth Gillett

“Be not afraid of greatness” ~ William Shakespeare What:

Since the earliest days, I’ve been drawn to language, the sound of consonant, vowel, syllable.  My parents made a recording of me at three reciting nursery rhyme after nursery rhyme in an impossibly high, piping, precocious little voice.  Later I became thrilled with the sense of “knowing” something of an author and another time from the writing. Even so, it seems too great a claim for me to say, “I’m a poet.”  But whether you call it p...

What, Why, How: Dorene O’Brien

What?

I have published poetry and essays, but at heart I am a fiction writer. My first story collection, Voices of the Lost and Found, is a group of gritty, unflinching, largely tragic stories told from the perspectives and in the voices of eleven disparate characters: an urban graffiti artist, a doctoral student who loses his mind while studying literary theory, a teenage boy on an interstate crime spree. I am obsessed with studying people who are unlike me (after all, how interesting are w...

I Will Revise: An Ode to the MFA Program

One highlight of The University of Southern Maine MFA program is their annual talent show. When I was a student ten years ago, we enjoyed everything from clarinet recitals, hula hoop performances and one-act plays to an excellent demonstration of finger shadow skills. My debut in the talent show was to sing a rewrite of Gaynor’s song depicting the work we had to do as creative writing students.

I WILL REVISE

− After the song, “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor

At first I was aghast, I was m...