CHICKEN SHACK
Names
The Facts of Life was a sitcom about four girls and their scraggly old headmistress, Mrs. Garrett. It was a painfully classic 80’s television programs that proselytized and preached lessons of morality to viewers each week. It’s also one of Elysha’s favorite childhood shows, so I hear about it from time to time. We were…
Read MoreTick tock
This is the worst part of the writing process for me: The waiting. The manuscript is done, and it’s in Taryn’s hands. I sit and wait, usually for about a week, hoping to hear that it’s absolutely perfect. Expecting to hear that it’s absolutely perfect. That’s a long week. A frustrating week. A hair-pulling, gut-wrenching…
Read MoreMaking my own karma
I may still be sick, but I can still be a jerk when the need arises. After a visit to the doctor today (where I was stuck with needles three times before they managed to draw blood), I headed to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription that the doc had called in for me.…
Read MoreWhat is an alternative lifestyle anymore?
Okay, I like The Spin Cycle Cafe, a combination cafe, bar and laundromat in town. My newest book, CHICKEN SHACK, which I am in the process of finishing and selling, features a combination funeral home and fried chicken stand, so I like the combination-location idea a lot. And I’ve written about The Spin Cycle Cafe…
Read MoreSay no to Fiji
Please stop drinking Fiji water. Please. At a recent conference on water scarcity and climate change, participants were offered Fiji water. Jen Phillips of Mother Jones writes: Fiji, need we remind you, is an island where water supplies are scarce and locals have struggled to find clean, reliable supplies of drinking water. Meanwhile, Fiji Water…
Read MoreDueling with my literary agent
This morning I wrote the last words of CHICKEN SHACK, finishing the book in almost exactly one year. After getting up to pee and grab a cookie, I sat back down and began the revision process. My agent, Taryn, has read the first half of the book and sent me notes to consider during revision. …
Read MoreIn need of a vigilante
In CHICKEN SHACK, the book I am on the verge of finishing at any second, my protagonist, Wyatt Salem, is a bit of a vigilante, enacting revenge on members of the public for petty crimes like parking in a handicapped zone and minor annoyances like poorly placed trees on golf courses. He spends his life…
Read MoreOn the precipice of revision
CHICKEN SHACK should be done by the end of the week. After allowing myself fifteen minutes to bask in the joy of finishing another book, I will begin revising. I’m not a fan of this process. I’m the kind of writer who edits and revises along the way, so that when I finish a page,…
Read MoreObnoxious and stupid
I couldn’t resist pointing out this idiot, who’s car I saw at the gym today. It’s parked about three feet from the curb and in the path of oncoming traffic. In fact, notice the passenger-side mirror, which is smashed and hanging to the car by a thread. Apparently this isn’t the first time this moron…
Read MoreConformity
PSYBLOG recently posted an article about conformity, a topic that means a lot of me. The protagonist in my current manuscript is something of a non-conformer, and according to one friend who I spoke to today, he and I could be brothers. Conformity has never been my thing either. The item in the PSYBLOG’s list…
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