Personal Stuff

I’ll bet you’ve heard this advice more than a few times: Always backup the data on your computer in case of hard drive failure, fried motherboards, or whatever might destroy it all. But have you REALLY taken it to heart? I haven’t, yet I’ve personally had three hard drive failures over the last 5-10 years. But I am getting better about backing things up. (A good backup, kept separately from your computer, sounds like great laptop insurance to me. I should explain, I only use laptops, although I have a very old, barely functioning desktop that runs our printer.) 1. […] Read More >

I have to confess that I’ve spent most of my writing life in a sort of tension between “wannabe” and “gottabe.” I’ve always told myself I want to be successful as a novelist. But most of my writing life has been taken up with writing I’ve had to do in order to pay the bills. I urge you, if it is at all possible, establish your writing priorities and focus as much as possible on those types of writing. Sacrifice whatever you can whenever you can to stick to the writing you love, and if you stray from that, reestablish […] Read More >

Most writers I know who have had any success getting published, or who blog regularly or otherwise self-publish, have a great love of words, all sorts of words. A few weeks ago I wrote a post about idioms and how they make language colorful and interesting, as well as difficult to learn. But there are other words I enjoy, and I don’t know whether they have a name as such or are classified in any linguistic categories. I just call them “odd words.” My working definition of an odd word is very simple: It’s a word I personally find bizarre, […] Read More >

Wow, “NaNoWriMo info” — I love speaking “acronym-ese,” don’t you? The title of this post really isn’t intended to be jumble or jargon, it just sort of worked out that way, I guess. I mentioned NaNoWriMo in my last post and wanted to update you on my adventure with this year’s upcoming installment, coming your way on November 1, the annual launch date. I did go there and I did sign on to give it a shot. If you want to look for me hanging around the forums there (and I won’t often be there, but I WILL be there), […] Read More >