Linda K. Sienkiewicz's Blog, page 29

Finish the damn book ~ Jacquelyn Mitchard

Did you know 97% of books started are never finished? I am fortunate to have finished and published one book, but I’m beginning to worry that the next may never be done. Fortunately I met up again with one of my literary heroes at Springfed Arts Lost Lake Writer’s Retreat in October, who gave me the encouragement and inspiration I needed.

Years ago, Jacquelyn Mitchard critiqued the opening of my novel, In the Context of Love, when it was an early draft. Her advice was just what a writer need...

Feral cat inspires memoirist to write children’s book

Even a feral cat who has never lived indoors can find love, a family, and a home.

The Story of Little White

Faye Rapoport DesPres and I share a publisher, Buddhapuss Ink. I know from reading Faye’s memoir, Message From a Blue Jay, that she loves cats. I also know that she’s passionate about conservation and animal protection. When I learned she was getting ready to launch a children’s book about a feral cat that she had adopted, I wanted to know more!

Here is our Q and A:

Q. How did Little W...

The Choice, a short film by Desiree Cooper

The moment we read the stick, some of us buckled on the bathroom floor….Undecided, we waited too long. Decisive, we were instantly clear about what to do. We were happy about it until we weren’t. (from “First Response,” published in the short story collection Know the Mother, by Desiree Cooper)

First Response:

I first heard Desiree Cooper perform her stunning short story titled “First Response” when we both participated in a national live storytelling event called Listen to Your Mother in Det...

Women Writers Share their Celebrity Idols

Oh, my teeny-bopping heart

Think back… did you have a teen idol who made you weak in the knees? Did you pore over 16 Magazine or Tiger Beat for the latest gossip about your favorite star? Some of us us don’t want to admit that we cried our eyes out when Paul McCartney married Linda Eastman, thus cruelly dashing our dreams that we might one day become Mrs. McCartney.

But I know you’re out there.

Rhett Butler, teen idol

Celebrity crushes are a fascinating subject. I once asked friend’s mom who...

Horseplay vs assault

Photo by Joseph Greve on Unsplash

How can anyone call attempted rape by a seventeen year-old “rough horseplay” or “simply part of the natural order of things. Boys, figuring out how to be men” –?

Don’t believe that for a second. As soon as a boy or man claps his hand over a girl’s mouth, it becomes an act of violence.

Don’t breathe a word

When I was thirteen or fourteen, a boy tried to drown me in a swimming pool at the neighbors who lived at the end of my street, Bramley Drive, in Independen...

To remain open and quiet in the fertile darkness

 

Path along Paint Creek Trail, Michigan

“You never know what’s around the corner. It could be everything. Or it could be nothing. You keep putting one foot in front of the other, and then one day you look back and you’ve climbed a mountain.”
― Tom Hiddleston

The urge to explore

Every path into the woods calls to me. When I’m riding along the Paint Creek Trail or Clinton River Trail, I often feel the urge to abandon my bicycle along they wayside to see where each path leads.

At the top of a p...

Beyond the Easy Gesture in Fiction

 

Oh, those flashing eyes!

The other day, I laughed when I read the recent tweet of a fellow writer: “There’s a lot of ‘flashing eyes’ in this draft. Need to fix.”

Our fictional characters certainly do flash their eyes. They also roll them, grind their jaws, blink, sneer, grimace, and smile in varying degrees from crookedly to unabashed. They shrug, cross their arms, tremble, and shake their heads like imaginary marionettes.

What are your go-to gestures or expressions when you write? I tend...

A Day at the Neighborhood House Nonprofit

typical Food Pantry/Clothes Closet clients:

One of the regular clients I see for emergency food at the Rochester Area Neighborhood House (RANH) is *Bill*. He’s legally deaf, so I to tap him on the shoulder in the waiting room before I bring him back for food intake. He can read lips if you speak slowly, and he speaks well. Today he limps; his arthritis was acting up. Bill gets about $900 from Social Security and $73 from DHS for food a month, but DHS recently cut his amount to $70 because th...

What, Why, How: Shardaira Johnson Moore

What: Hello! I am Shardaira Johnson-Moore, new author from the western Michigan Area! My book is titled ROYALE: Reach Over your Agony and Live Excellent. I write about life as a child growing up in a fatherless home, neglect from my mom, witnessing drug and substance abuse, and much more. At the age of 14 I began to engage in child prostitution (commercial sex exploitation), was addicted to alcohol and found myself in a major rut. But that wasn’t the end for me, no! Through, meditation,  writ...

Endings are never easy

What if…

How many times have you enjoyed a book right up to the end, but when you closed it, you felt unsatisfied? Not in the sense that the ending wasn’t “happy,” but rather that the last chapter seemed slapped together? Or predictable? Or missing something?

Endings are not easy. I recall when my agent mentioned she thought my novel might need an additional scene at the end to “round things out.” Another scene? What could that possibly entail? I was gobsmacked at first. Even though I liked t...