Category: Uncategorized

Today, I stole an hour to write. Usually, I manage to write about fifteen hours a week. I haven’t even managed to steal fifteen minutes a day in the past week and half. I’ve been helping my oldest get settled in Chicago for her first real job after graduating from college and attending the various…

I didn’t make much progress today as I clicked through more pictures of the Domomites, but I did make it over 8000 words.  Here’s a photo of the Sassolungo group. While my character didn’t get this close to these mountains, other people in her group did. I’m hoping to pick up the pace tomorrow.

Now I confess that I have not yet read Penny Blubaugh’s BLOOD AND FLOWERS, but I’ve been wanting to every since the sale was announced by the agent we share. It sounded like a great concept, and here’s what Kirkus wrote about it: “..atmospheric language, arresting “culture mash-up,” unique characters, an alluring overlap of fantasy…

I spent a little time this evening clicking back through the Calyn category on this blog.  It’s been a long road.  One thing I noticed is that I reached “the end” of this story repeatedly.  At one point, I completed the rough draft. Later, I managed to get the story up to the level of a semi-polished…

Several of my writer friends were kind enough to look over the product of last week’s writing binge.   It looks like I addressed a goodly chunk of the issues that they had with the book’s ending.  It had felt abrupt; there were too many questions unanswered.  I’m definitely sensitive to that charge since it was one of the…

I’m not usually a binge writer.  Instead, I tend to dedicate early mornings to my current project, the middle of the day to my students’ work and late afternoon to various household chores.  During the evenings, I’ll putter away at this and that depending on my student load and whether or not I like the current NCIS…

When I’m not sure what to do with a certain section of my novel, I frequently reach for my copy of the Newbery honor book, The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope.  I’ve done this with first chapters, last chapters, chapter openings, chapter endings and transitions in general.  So when I was struggling with an…

I’m happy to report that things have settled down in my sister’s Cairo suburb.  The people of Maadi have essentially taken their neighborhoods back with a little assistance from the Egyptian army.  Undoubtedly, sentiments about Westerners vary widely throughout Egypt, but one stranger came up to a friend of my sister’s on the street and said: “Don’t worry.…

I tend to stick to thoughts about writing on this blog.  But when I had a request for a school visit this morning, I couldn’t help thinking about the ones that I did in Egypt a couple of years ago at my sister’s school, Cairo American College.  These were unpaid events for my sister’s friends. …