Read, Write, Breathe - and Smile!

It’s National Reading Group Month and if you aren’t too engrossed in reading that epic novel, you could always sharpen your writing skills to write one with any of the many great resources offered by the Insecure Writers Support Group, founded by Alex Cavanaugh, right here and right now on this first Wednesday of the month, when IWSG members convene through blogging, Facebook, and Twitter to talk about whatever is on our writing minds and agendas. See what we’re all talking about here.

And if you dare... 

 

Just when I couldn’t imagine witnessing something exaltingly fresh, unexpectedly vivid - and absolutely free (yes, I thought I had ‘seen it all’), I spent a week watching seasonal transformations in the woods. I had one last fleeting thought of our sassy whiptail lizards, cavorting year-round in the unyielding desert back home before an autumn butterfly perched briefly on my keyboard as soaring treetops swayed in a bracing breeze that rushed the clouds across the sky as if they were late for something. 

You couldn’t have peeled me off that bench, from that place where it was suddenly clear how so many writers before me; Zane Grey, J.A. Jance, Stephanie Meyer and Barbara Park, had been so completely suffused in atmospheric inspiration.  

But I hadn’t come to write about nature or the weather, though I understand Climate-themed fiction is popular these days. Perhaps “The History of Bees” by Maja Lunde would lend insight as to how to keep them out of hummingbird feeders. As an adventurous spirit who still needs a home to return to, Barbara Kingsolver’s “Flight Behavior” certainly weaves the dreaded word extinction into my unsuspecting thought waves.

But what was I going to write about? Checking my inboxes is one of my favorite distractions, and that’s when I read the latest (at the time) IWSG newsletter in which Ninja Captain, Alex reminded us of the upcoming deadline for submissions for the annual Anthology. Four hours, four (single-spaced) pages later, and it’s history in the making! How’s your journey?

In answer to the optional Question of the Month: “Have you ever slipped any of your personal information into your characters, either by accident or on purpose?”  Indubitably ;-)

Happy Writing!

“Why can’t people just sit and read books and be nice to each other?” – David Baldacci, The Camel Club