Linda K. Sienkiewicz's Blog, page 6

Family Recipe: a Finnish pancake with three ingredients

My Finnish pancakeBut what’s it called?

My Finnish grandmother made an oven pancake that I loved, and now my grandkids enjoy it whenever they visit. My mom often made it for dinner, too, because who doesn’t love breakfast for dinner? For years, I knew how to say it, but didn’t know how to spell it.

In my family, we called it KRUP-sue-AH, and I thought it was spelled krupse. I recently shared a picture on Facebook, tagging my cousins who live in Finland, hoping they could spell it.

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Words by the Waves: a Beach Access Trail StoryWalk®

Robbie’s Way on Ocracoke Island, NC

Robbie’s Way is a 15-foot wide access from Silver Lake Drive to the shores of Pamlico Sound. The family of Robbie Runyon deeded the access to Ocracoke Preservation Society in 2000 in memory of her frequent walks to watch the sunset across the road from her island home.

In 2021, Robbie’s Way added a StoryWalk®. The walkway now includes 17 wooden cases, handmade by an island craftsman, which hold the pages to a picture book selected by the Ocracoke Pub...

Building Trust with a Narrator: How Long Does It Take to Connect with the Voice?

Who is this person telling the story?

And do I trust them?

Any time I begin reading a new book there’s a period of adjustment when I struggle to feel comfortable with the narrator’s voice, and to trust that I’m in good hands. It’s almost like making a new friend. You kind of wonder if and when you want to see them again.

Occasionally I find myself caught in an internal fight not to put the book down. I usually stick with the book anyway, and before too long, the narrator and I are h...

The Impact of Three-Star Reviews: Lessons from Chocolate

Are three stars really so bad?

A recent post by an author on Threads read

Does anyone else find 3-star Goodreads reviews really dispiriting? You give your book your very life, your soul, for however long, and a reader goes “yeah, it was okay. Didn’t hate it.” I know you can’t please everyone but you also can’t stop those emotions.

Another author replied, “I know not everyone will like my writing, but the throwaway comments without any real explanation or substance are really dish...

Generational Driving: Passing Down Skills and Memories

Fears of parallel parking

When our granddaughter came to stay with us in August, she was a little nervous about taking the driver’s test for her license when she returned home. Michigan still required new drivers pass a parallel parking test.

So we loaded up my Buick Acadia with makeshift cones made from pails and pool noodles and drove to an empty parking lot near us. I hoped my Arcadia’s cameras might help her with turning and positioning. After a dozen or more tries, she began to un...

What, Why, How: Poet Wendy Wisner

What:

I suppose I would characterize my poetry as lyric poetry. Some poems are quite narrative, and others are more experimental. My poems have a strong emotional center. Sound and image are important to me. How the poem looks on the page is also a major consideration, because for me, the form of the poem – its shape, the spaces between words and stanzas – is as important as elements like sound and image.

Why:

For me, poetry does something that no other form of writing—or art—can do...

Determination and Tenacity: The Path to Getting Published

Hard work gets results!

Writing and ultimately publishing takes determination and tenacity. Time. Brainstorming. Editing. More time. Problem solving. Pulling your hair out. Walking away. Fine tuning. Asking fellow writers for help and ideas. Hiring help. In the end, you get what you put into it.

So after all my sweat and hard work, I’m thrilled to announce that Regal House Publishing, an independent traditional press from North Carolina, purchased my novel, Love and Other Incurable Ailmen...

Exploring book sales opportunities beyond bookstores

Literally go anywhere that books are sold:

How often do you consider other places for book sales? When you travel, do you carry copies of your book? What about a sell sheet?

I encourage you to do both. Here is why:

While vacationing in the Outer Banks this summer, we visited The Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras, North Carolina. They had a great gift shop full of books, ships, models, and toys, and a handful of children’s books. I immediately envisioned my picture book, ...

What, Why, How: Will Ludwigsen

What:

I met my gracious blog host Linda at the Stonecoast MFA program at the University of Southern Maine, where I studied “popular fiction.” That was their term for fiction that people don’t feel pressured to read, and usually with spaceships or ghosts or detectives.

I chose popular fiction because I sometimes do use spaceships and ghosts and detectives in my work, though it’s a stretch to call it particularly “popular.” Some literary readers are perplexed by the appearance of the st...

What, Why, How: Lynne Golodner

What?

While I’ve always been a writer, and I write in lots of genres and about lots of topics, these days I am focused on writing emotional novels with compelling Jewish characters that fill their lives with passion, purpose and food. I also write creative nonfiction essays. But really, my main focus is writing novels at the pace of a book a year. My second novel, Cave of Secrets, will make its debut August 27, 2024. It will be my tenth published book, joining two poetry collections, six ...