Last weekend I met a woman my age who lived in Costa Rica for several years. Like me, she sometimes wonders how she ended up in our cute little town, and, like me, has come to accept this latest stage in her life. When I first mentioned that I lived in Mexico for three years, …
Melanie Hooyenga
It’s a Start
Thanks for your encouragement last week. I’m proud to say I finally sat down and wrote TWO WHOLE PAGES. For me, that’s the hardest part because the first couple pages set the tone for the entire novel and that’s the only time I truly struggle to write. Once I get into the flow of writing …
Me and OCD
I joke so often about my OCD tendencies that I forget a lot of people probably don’t realize this about me. If you know me at all you’ve probably picked up on some of my quirks, but I’m always surprised when a friend discovers just how ingrained these compulsions are. Some background: I’ve always been …
Justice
In the US, when a person is murdered, a variety of things can happen to the killer. He gets away. He’s caught, stands trial, and is found not-guilty. He’s found guilty and gets a light sentence. He spends his life in jail. Or he’s put to death. The media tells us that justice for the …
Grab a Glass…
… because I’m about to start whining. It occurred to me over the weekend that it’s been SIX MONTHS since I started a new project. I spent two months writing Flicker, then another month and a half editing, and since then… well… let’s just say I haven’t been writing. Yes, I outlined books two and …
A New Obsession
I research social media tools as part of my day job, and my latest task has been to find the best social monitoring and listening applications. One site that’s come up again and again is klout.com. From the website: The Klout Score is the measurement of your overall online influence. The scores range from 1-100 …
A Crossroads
I have a confession to make: I still haven’t started the second book in my trilogy. I started my outline a couple weeks ago, then events in my life made me stall on the idea, then I read a couple timely blog posts from agents saying that writing additional books in a series before selling …
Transformation
I talk about a lot of things on this blog, but I try not to talk about things that are too personal. This past year has been one big change after another, and as hard as it sometimes was, I tried to keep focused on the fact that “this too shall pass.” I’m not completely …
The Curse of an Overactive Imagination, Part 2
I’m saying part two because I’m fairly confident I’ve talked about this before. Yesterday on my way home from work, I took my usual exit off the highway and looped beneath the drawbridge that connects our two towns, but instead of whipping past the river and climbing to the next bridge, I had to swerve …
ssssssssssssssssss…….
Do you hear that noise? *sssssssssssssssssssss* Those are fumes, and that’s what I’m running on. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s the NHL playoffs, also known as the two-month span of time in which I get no sleep. I don’t follow every game during the regular season, but once …