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On Writing

Five Ways to Set Up Your Blog To Chase Readers Away

/ On Writing / By / 29 Comments

If you’d just spent a good bit of time getting your place spiffed up for company, and you were really looking forward to having them come and visit for awhile, would you then welcome them by piling some of your furniture in front of the door for them to climb over? Surely not. Yet, metaphorically speaking, this is what some bloggers do to their visitors.

A blogger friend and I were just discussing this very phenomenon; annoying stumbling blocks bloggers … Read More

What I Don’t Subscribe To

/ On Writing / By / 4 Comments

Heather from TopBlog Magazine gave a few of us writers this assignment:

…This is your invite to write something for the next issue. The theme is “I don’t subscribe to…” but don’t use that as your title…

I scribbled down a few ideas that popped into my head. For my own use, I left the “don’t subscribe to” as my jumping off point just to get going. I’d come up with titles later.

Here are some of the unedited ideas … Read More

What’s to Like and Not Like About Blogging

/ On Writing / By / 9 Comments

My friend, Rory, over at Hamelife tagged me for this meme — 5 things I like about blogging and 3 things I don’t. And how fortunate, because several readers have asked me about the pros and cons of starting their own blog. So I can skip two stones across the pond with one throw. :)

5 Things I Like About Blogging:

1. Blogging is a great creative outlet for anyone who wants to write.

It’s a way to hone your … Read More

How to Break into Magazines

/ On Writing, The Mail Bag / By / 1 Comment

From the Mail Bag: Kate writes: I’d like to start writing nonfiction, human interest stories, emphasizing topics such as dogs and life with dogs, health and psychology. I’d like to start with articles (magazine, newspaper or both) and eventually work towards a book. I have done a few small human interest pieces for the newspaper at the University where I currently work and also back when I was in college. Any advice you’d have to share would be appreciated.

Dear … Read More

Note to Self…

/ My Dogs and Me, On Writing / By / 13 Comments

…Make sure, with all future book contracts, to specify that if I write a book about my dogs, and the publisher is going to put a picture of a dog on the cover, then it’s my dog’s picture that will be used. Not a generic stock photo of a dog that not only is not one of the breeds I’m writing about, but has absolutely no connection to the story.

Dogs of Dreamtime is coming out in paperback in April. … Read More

Alice Down the Rabbit Hole

/ Life, On Writing / By / 7 Comments

When I was growing up, we lived out in the country where there were a lot of animals, but not a lot of kids. Animals were my constant companions. When I wasn’t busy with my horses, dogs, cats, and the cows (not ours) out in the back pasture, I’d amuse myself with my mind. Like my daughter, Caitlin, I wasn’t a great sleeper, so while lying awake at night I’d often play “What If” games.

Some of my “What If’s” … Read More

What Do You Say When…

/ On Writing, The Mail Bag / By / 1 Comment

From the mail bag: K.W. asks: What do you say when someone has asked you to read something they’ve written, and it really stinks? I don’t want to hurt my friend’s feelings, because I know she spent a lot of time on it. She thinks the story she’s written is ready to be sent off to a publisher. I think it’s ready to be sent to the circular file. Help! I’m sure you must get this a lot.

As a … Read More

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