My mother-in-law passed away on June 2 from bacterial meningitis. Her passing was sudden and left her immediate family with bittersweet emotions. Four days after she died, I bought Journalution along with Beth Jacobs’ Writing for Emotional Balance. I had started journaling in my early twenties, but fell out of the habit after I reentered [...] Read more »
Great Christmas Gifts for Writers
Can you believe the holidays are here again?! When looking for gifts for writers, I came across several blog posts that declared how hard we writers are to shop for. I emphatically disagree, and I’ll prove it. 1. Gift Certificates and Pre-paid Cards: Staples, Office Max, Amazon, Barnes&Noble, iTunes, Starbucks 2. How to Write Books: [...] Read more »
Preliminary Review of the AlphaSmart Neo
First off, I was very impressed with the customer service. Worried that I wasn’t going to get this in time before I left, I called their office. The lady was very friendly and helpful, which is a rare thing with customer service departments. The Neo arrived yesterday afternoon. Measuring 1.8″x12.4″x9.8″, it’s smaller than the standard [...] Read more »
This Writer is Going Mobile
Never mind kids, the Internet is my greatest distraction. I’m always fighting with myself to keep from checking my email, surfing for software or books, blogging, reading other blogs, etc. I spend too much time on the Internet. It’s a wonder that I get any writing done. This morning, I passed an ad in the [...] Read more »
Avenir Writing Software
Mariner Software is coming out with a new writing software called Avenir, which not only helps you outline your novel, but helps you track submissions. The above screenshot shows the Snowflake Method template, which Lee Pletzers had introduced to me about a year ago. I wish I’d had that formula when I started writing Prosperity. [...] Read more »
Murder and Mayhem in Testing Phase
My research site is now live. However, I’ll be playing around with the features until I learn how to use a wiki. If you’d like to find out exactly what this site is going to be about, click on the link below and read the Introduction. Murder and Mayhem: A Research Site for Writers and [...] Read more »
Researching Serial Killers and Evil People
Melly had a great discussion going on with her post Do You Believe in Evil? OR The Importance of Evil to Plot. During this discussion, she asked me to post the research I’d conducted ten years ago about serial killers. I told her I would. However, when I moved last summer, I threw out a [...] Read more »
Calendars Past and Present
I just found this great website for generating printable yearly calendars that go back to the year 1900 on up to 2039. This comes especially handy with God’s Last Twilight, which is written in diary form during 1918. Read more »