Linda K. Sienkiewicz's Blog, page 8

You are always a writer: motivation

Are you unable to write?

Don’t worry. Writing is like a disease. It may go into remission, but it never leaves you. It sounds like a rather negative analogy, but it’s true. Let me tell you my story.

I stepped away from my writing for nearly two years after my son took his own life in 2011. During this time, I didn’t look at my short stories or half-started novels. I did not revise the manuscript I had finished, the one I loved best, the one my then-agent couldn’t sell. I did not write...

Never a singer but I can dream

Dreams:

A few weeks ago I blogged about finding a blue notebook that I’d kept when I taught journaling at a women’s shelter over twenty years ago. I wrote along with the women during writing prompts.

I found this entry, titled “Dreams”

That I’ll get a novel publishedRetire to house on the beachThat I could sing wellSee the Grand CanyonHave coffee in a café in ParisGo sailing on an 18th century sail shipReality vs Dreams

My first novel was published about...

Literary vs Genre Fiction

Give it to me straight:

A writer on Twitter/X asked: “What do you understand by the term ‘literary fiction’ in three words or fewer.” Among the comments, I read:

marketed for awardsstyle over plotpretentious gate keepingwon’t sell muchflowery, pretentious, boringarbitrary nonsense elitismgoing nowhere slowlybooks to avoidwading through treaclewordy, lacks actionquestionable superiority complextortured prosealmost never dragons

Ouch! ...

My Big Ask

Pretty Please…

Friends, if you’ve read Gordy and the Ghost Crab, my poetry book Sleepwalker, or my novel In the Context of Love, please hop over to Amazon and write a few words in a reader review.

I’m not asking you just to feed my ego. Reviews mean EVERYTHING to the algorithm gods. Here is why:

The importance of reviews

Reader reviews keep books active in Amazon’s product recommendation algorithm. It works like this: Reviews create page activity. Page activity awakens the giant...

The Fear is Real

Shake it up:

Here I am in Tucson, Arizona, smiling hugely from way up high. I look giddy with happiness. Truthfully, I was giddy with fear. You can’t see how hard I’m shaking. My entire being! With my heart in my throat! I remember entertaining an irrational fear that the wind might blow me off, and a brief concern that my husband or someone else might push me, you know, just for giggles. He’d never do such a thing, but my mind goes in weird places when I’m terrified. Does yours?

You a...

Simple beliefs that hold true

A journaling exercise

When cleaning a deep, dark and very dusty closet recently, I found a little blue notebook that I wrote in when my friend Rebecca Vlasic and I conducted journaling workshops at a women’s shelter in Pontiac, sometime around 2000. In the workshop, we discussed the value of keeping a personal journal of goals, aspirations, accomplishments, likes and dislikes, and good memories. We wrote along with the women.

I found one titled “Beliefs.” For this exercise, we asked...

Adjustments: Do dogs grieve?

Life without Clementine:

I’ve been watching our 3-year old corgi Cowboy carefully since his buddy Clementine traveled over the rainbow bridge on February 8th, 2024. After all, she was there since the first day we brought him home. Now his morning routine has changed. His walk routine changed. Feeding routine, bedtime, playtime…. all changed.

I tried not to project my own feelings of loss over Clementine onto Cowboy, but a few subtle behaviors of his showed me that he missed her, or, a...

Poem for the Eclipse

The Wounded Healer Astro-eclipse-ology

A Found Poem

Because the North Node
represents the energy
we, as a collective, are moving toward
and creating more space for,
this eclipse may feel
like a forceful shove
in the right direction,
taking you
somewhere far away
from your comfort zone.

You’re being called
to let go
of what has been holding you
back; to shed your skin
and set yourself free
from the inhibiting confines
of your past.
Every eclipse is difficult,
but this one
is a different beast entire...

How do you hang up the phone?

End it

We end phone calls with the mere tap of a finger. When I was young, it was exciting to hang up on someone by slamming the receiver down. Slam your cell phone down and you might shatter the screen. I still hang up on solicitors. I hang up on political calls, too. What do you say? End the call, or hang up?

Some of us remember when we used to dial a number.

A recent WaPo article on evolving words and their meanings got me thinking about outdated words and phrases. Here’...

What, Why, How: Maryann Miller

What?

Hello, my name is Maryann, and I’m addicted to writing. It started when I was about ten years old and had just finished reading a charming book about Lassie written by Albert Payson Terhune. After closing the book, I turned to my friend who was reading with me and said, “Let’s write stories like this.”

My first story wasn’t about a dog. It was about a horse, and The Call of the Wild won an award in the Scholastic Writing Awards contest when I was twelve. I was sure I would grow u...