Thoughts on not much of anything…

A reprise from 2009. I hope you don’t mind. ~ I’ve been thinking. What I write here varies with my mood, but the two topics that most often turn up in this blog are my novel writing and my locale. If you were a fly on the wall here, you’d understand why that’s so. In

From the Archives: The Music of Words

A couple years ago I showed you this incredibly heavy box of music that was sitting in the middle of my kitchen. It represented over a decade of choral music collected by one of our church accompanists. In the same way as I hoard books, she hoards music, and for the same reason – it speaks

Some days are more conducive to writing than others. (Or are they?)

Bitter wind rattles the windows and flings icy pellets at the glass. The rhododendron leaves are curled into themselves, huddled against the cold. It’s wild and wintry outside … a good day to stay home, turn up the thermostat and catch up on the writing we’ve been meaning to do all week. Of course, it’s also a

Monday Morning

I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning. J. B. Priestley   This is the day which the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24 . In the

The Music of Words

This incredibly heavy box of music is sitting in the middle of my kitchen. It represents over a decade of choral music collected by one of our church accompanists. In the same way as I hoard books, she hoards music, and for the same reason – it speaks to her. She needed to downsize and

Is writing without passion worth the effort?

  Her Shiny New Idea died an early death. In explaining why, my DD Shari Green said, “How do I know I’m not destined to write this story? Lack of passion. I just can’t see myself spending a year or two of my life completely wrapped up in this story.” I was sorry to hear

Trying and falling short. Then what?

. Radio personality Ira Glass offers his take on what to do when we aren’t creating the quality we desire… . . What’s your take? It’s fine to say, from the pinnacle of success, that you would have liked people to tell you the climb was going to be a rough one. But if told,

The Writer’s Eureka Moment

. Sometimes it’s writer’s block, sometimes mental exhaustion or impossible expectations, that drag us to a standstill. A lethargy sets in that smothers ambition and overshadows everything with its ‘I’ll-never-get-out-from-under-this-cloud’ sense of gloom. If you haven’t experienced it, you likely know others who have. The thing is, it feels as if it will never end,

Refilled and ready to write again

. What’s that song? “Back in the Saddle Again?” Yeah, that’s it. . I’ve been away since last Wednesday, taking the refreshment break I mentioned, trading the trickle of my deck’s water garden for the roar of the Similkameen River. My w.i.p. didn’t accompany me, but I wrote every day and took more than 150

Curiosity and Creativity

. Curiosity has both a positive and negative connotation.  Seen as inquisitiveness it is interest, a desire to know something, to gain knowledge – admirable qualities. Taken more as snooping, however, it’s showing nosiness and a tendency to pry – an intrusiveness most of us don’t welcome. Our visitors last night displayed a little of