Ruth Buchanan's Blog, page 5

How to Recover from a Writers Conference

You’ve just arrived home from your writers conference. Your brain is boiling, your fingers twitching, and that little muscle under your eye has been jumping for the last twelve hours.

Totally relatable. But you can’t stay like this forever.

What do you do first?

Stop Talking

If you’re anything like me, then you’re sick of the sound of your own voice, and the pitch for your current work-in-progress has begun to sound like gibberish through constant repetition.

Above all, you long to eat a meal...

A Floridian's Guide to Real, Actual Hurricane Prep

With hurricane season dead ahead, Floridians are busy doing what we do best: procrastinating. And by procrastinating, I don't mean waiting to prepare until a day or two before hurricane season actually starts. I mean waiting until a named storm is actually bearing down on us to muster the energy to care. Because that's what most of us do.
Naturally, we each have a checklist of supplies and an idealized timeline in which we'd like to make arrangements. 
Reality, however, always lo...

Everyone Wins

⭐⭐Announcement! ⭐⭐
When my novel Collapsible reaches 50 Amazon reviews, I'll release a deleted scene in which Ann decides to piggyback Rachel into the emergency room and things go decidedly wrong. 
Because of course.

All right, y'all.
You know what to do.
Click here to leave your review.

I, Potato

This week I heard someone talking about Imposter Syndrome, and it got me thinking about my writing career. Although I have a string of writing credits, I still have trouble thinking of myself as a writer. This has little to do with how much time I spend writing (so much time) and more to do with the fact that my work isn't really known. 
When people ask about my career, I generally refer to myself as a "small potato"; but a potato actually has more name recognition than I do. Everybody's...

A Little Rhyme about Running

calves jackedheels cracked
cardio at"heart attack"toenails blackjaw slackfavored gait:"confused hunchback"face dampside crampcurrent playlistneeds revampshort breathcome, deathmental state:"Lady Macbeth"long runmean sunno fun
wait

we're done?

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Books

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Image Attribution:
unagiinu1210 [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Release Week Sneak Peek: Unbreakable

Chapter 1
(Excerpt)
"I can't think of anything!" Rachel topped off Lynn's mug before turning politely to her sister. She tilted the pot toward Ann. "Coffee?"
Ann snorted, leaned back against the booth, and continued skimming through texts on her ancient flip phone.
Lynn closed Rachel's Resolutions Notebook, set it in the center of the table, and tapped it with a slender finger. "These are a fine start. Good job, Rachel." 
Rachel flushed. As anticipated, victory was sweet.
"What'd she pick?" Fo...

Show Us How It's Done: A Love Song in Bullet Points

Anne and Gilbert show us
Great loves can be friends first, butThat cracking a slate doesn't preclude a date, because sometimes boys are the worst.Lizzy and her Darcy prove
That first impressions change, but That soft, shy smiles can sometimes take a while: some men lack emotional range.Hermione and Ron show us
That opposites attract, but That love often hides, buried deeply inside--at least 'till the castle's attacked.Margaret Hale and Thornton prove
Some conflict's sparked by caring, b...

On Seeing Art as Gift

In his book Culture Care: Reconnecting with Beauty for Our Common Life, Makoto Fujimura asks the following question: "What if we saw art as gift, not just as commodity?"
That question has been vital in shaping my attitude as I contribute to the arts through books and plays.
Seeing Art as Gift
First, seeing my work as a gift frees it from the burden of my identity. My books are not me. They're a gift meant for readers. I expect no emotional return on investment. Readers can like them or...

Public Service Announcement

In the interest of a more balanced approach to work and life, I'll only be blogging once a month during 2018. (And maybe the occasional bonus post if I'm hitting my deadlines.)

Love you all.

Thanks for reading!

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By Uploaded by user Infrogmation (en.wikipedia.org) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Release Week Sneak Peek: Flexible

1
If Rachel Cooper had known that directing the school drama would lead to so much actual drama, she would have passed on the entire experience. But since directing a play was written into her yearly teaching contract, she wasn’t exactly allowed that option. Still, she liked to think that with a hint of foresight, she might have saved herself the grief and opted out.
After her idyllic summer road trip, she was not emotionally prepared for the jarring experience of diving full-force back into he...