10 Things I am looking forward to on my “vacation.”

1. Being done packing.
2. The McDonald’s in Germantown, TN. Whee! Well, at least the salads are good and you can’t beat not having to cook.
3. Visiting one of my oldest best friends from college, Hannah, for one night enroute, at her house in Meadville, PA, which I’ve never seen before. [...]

A sentimental reading story. . .

I love to read to my kids. As anyone who has cuddled up to read with a child knows, there’s not much out there that beats the experience. But last night I was tired. Really, really tired. We’d had two under 10 house guests for four days, kids who I love. [...]

I won, I won, I won!!!

Let me paraphrase:
THE BOOK GUYS LETTERHEAD HERE (use your imagination)
Dear Stephanie,
Congratulations on your winning response to the “Caulfield” quiz. You have a choice of nine prizes. . .
Ok, I won’t detail the nine, I’ll just tell you the prize I picked for winning the quiz on The Book Guys, my favorite radio show [...]

A brief borrowed word about engaging the reader. . .

There is a wonderful post over at The Longstockings about engaging your readers called the Hazeet moment–is your curiosity piqued. . .check it out here.
For an idea of what I’m going to be up to the next few days, Monda couldn’t have said it better here.
Bye y’all
SV
PS: Tim: If you’re reading this: The momma [...]

Lance Olson, Where Have You Been All My (Professional) Life

What follows is a quick and dirty post, meaning no pictures and only one link, because I’m on my husband’s older mac and it’s really hard to have more than one window up. That’s my excuse, anyway. So if you encounter anything unfamiliar in this piece, you’ll have to google it yourself.
Work continues, [...]

Writing Longhand and WIOTD Resurfaces

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I’m enjoying a wonderful new book by Susan Bell called The Artful Edit that I’ll be mining for blog discussions in the next several entries. It’s divided into 5 chapters, Gaining Perspective, The Big Picture: Macro-Editing, The Details: Micro-Editing, Master Class, and Servants, Dictators, Allies: A Brief History of Editors. As a connoiseur [...]

Mother’s Day

Thanks to my husband, who’s incredibly thoughtful on most holidays but who pulls out all the stops on Mother’s Day, I had a great one. I also had time to reflect on all the great mothers I’ve had in my life, especially, of course, the one who raised me.
But as tributes to mothers go, this one [...]

Great stuff for writers–and what’s your ritual?

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Wow–I just found a great link to an article on 50 Awesome Open Source Resources for Writers. Check it out here, you won’t regret it. Something for everyone. I can’t wait to start playing around with some of them.
So, while we’re on the subject of writing, I thought I’d [...]

Want to know where I’ve been?

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I’m back, from a hiatus of sorts during which I went in for outpatient surgery for a benign ovarian cyst that turned into inpatient surgery for endometriosis (not serious, just invasive) and a partial Oophectomy. This means removal of one ovary but I just like to say it and write the official [...]