Still trying to make up for lost time from the computer virus that ate my life. I want to whine here. Oh, how I long to whine and whinge and roll on the floor while pouring dust on my head.
But that sort of thing makes for really boring reading, doesn’t it?  So I’m going to refrain from it.  Actually, [...]

I was pretty certain last night that there would be no school today.  I got up at 6 anyway to check the school websites. By 6:30 it was clear; no school.  That means grandchildren here all day.  Not the best conditions for getting the writing done.
So, it was time to turn the house into [...]

It goes through Hell. 
But only on the deep dips.
On the high parts, it arcs over mountains, past fountains of stars. 
Wind in your face. 
It takes you places that ordinary people can’t get to.
Now, here’s the choice.
You are buckled in.  You can’t get off the roller coaster.
But you can flatten it out.
Would you give [...]

You may or may not have heard of Vera Nazarian.  She is the founder of Norilana books, a little publishing house that has given many new writers a hand up.  It would be worth helping Vera if the only thing we wanted to do was keep Norilana books afloat.  However, there is a lot more [...]

I am the office assistant.I’m an expeditor. I’m not perfect.
I am also not Robin Hobb or Megan Lindholm.
I am the OfficeKat, that’s my official title.
In the interest of full disclosure I wanted to let you know that the comments and friending notifications come to my email, the office email.  We have a small but fully functioning office and a very [...]

I miss my swamp.
I love the useless lands, the lands too wet to plow.
The lands that only bear what they feel like bearing, no potatoes or corn or lumpy squash.
They grew berries and birds’ nests and tussocks of grasses. Hard packed mud in the summer heat, a smooth field of snow in the cold of [...]

My lawn is covered in leaves.  Copper beech tree leaves, to be specific.  I have filled both of my giant recycling container, and there are still leaves all over the lawn. And the sidewalk. And the street gutters.
Personally, I don’t care much about leaves on my lawn, as long as they don’t get so thick [...]

Back in the middle of the fifties, when I was first introduced to printing, it seemed to me that all pencils were yellow.  They had erasers on one end, they were made of wood, and the class had a pencil sharpener that we were allowed to use at certain times of the day.
I took great [...]

What if I die before I write all my books?
What happens to unwritten books when the author dies?  Is there a character heaven? Or a limbo?
Are the characters and storylines suddenly released, to fly out into the world and find a new writer’s brain to settle in?
There are books in my head that are waiting [...]

So, get this.
I’m down here on the keyboard, trying to get a few words onto thescreen, because I don’t actually get all that much time to myself on the keyboard anymore.  In fact, I don’t get any time on the keyboard until Robin Hobb has cranked out her 1000 or 2000 or whatever it is [...]