If you read my previous post, you'll note that I bought a used library book— The Genteel Tradition and the Sacred Rage —that was distinctive for having never been checked out. The unstamped library card was still on the inside back cover. I recently bought another used library book, the one featured above: The Expense of Vision: Essays on the Craft of Henry James by Laurence Bedwell Holland. It, too, is a library discard. But why? Too old? (Copyright 1964). Too esoteric? (Who

One thing I've learned from social media: Just because I wrote a book doesn't mean everyone else wants to write a book—or will write a book. Nor do they want to be reminded of the fact that they have no interest in becoming a artist, selling a song, or performing on Broadway. They're happy the way they are. Or seemingly happy. If we believe the message of Edgar Guest's doggerel below, that's the way of the world. And inasmuch as most people don't want to be told to act upon t

I remember the day my father took me and my sister to a shady area in the woods close to a creek. We were going fishing with the...

Want to feel empowered? Choose not to “like” a friend’s social media post. Oh, I know. That sounds like sour grapes. Someone didn’t get...

January 14, 2025

The Orchards Poetry Journal, Winter 2024

If you’re an author published by an independent publisher, you are responsible for most of your book’s promotion and marketing. With the...

I’ve changed my mind about people’s heartfelt desire to write the book within them. They’ll never do it. And I need to quit encouraging...

“And she tried to fancy what the flame of a candle is like after the candle is blown out, for she could not remember ever having seen...

Originally published in Women Writers, Women's Books, June 7, 2023 https://booksbywomen.org/facing-the-blank-canvas-have-the-self-confide...

Are you inadvertently boring your readers because of your reliance on mainly two sentence styles? Those styles are the compound sentence...

In addition to writing my debut novel and several essays, I have always loved writing poetry. Perhaps my favorite poem from among those I...

Photo by Victoria Rodriguez from Pexels One of the most compelling articles I read last year was titled “on the inability to create...

Let’s face it: Martha Stewart makes perfect cupcakes. But that’s not the only thing she’s good at. Until it lost its news value, Martha...

In my last blog, I mentioned “too much” girls, ones who were too loud, too this, too that. And I saluted them for their passion, their...

When you’re a writer, the most wonderful feeling is getting your manuscript accepted by a publisher and seeing it take shape as a...

In the children’s story “The Runaway Flying Horse,” a carousel horse tires of the restrictive Merry-Go-Round, longing for the freedom...

What I love about Kaylin Haught’s poem above, “God says yes to me,” is the message of assurance it gives to girls who question...

—Ethereal drone music to make you believe you’re wandering around an exoplanet that, unlike the one you’re on, requires no dusting,...

Have you ever been ghosted? I don’t mean have you ever come face to face with a vanishing figure in an abandoned Victorian mansion after...