Walking Down the Path – Mindy Carlson
As I mentioned last month, we’re all living that fairy tale life. As authors, we’re writing about life, but in encapsulated vignettes that feature our struggles and dark times before we…| Mindy Carlson
We dropped Child The First off to begin his second year of college on Thursday. I, of course, was immediately brought back to last year, crying as we drove away from dorm. That first year, I was a swirling storm of emotions. Simultaneously thrilled he was starting a new phase of his life and mourning […]| Mindy Carlson
As I mentioned last month, we’re all living that fairy tale life. As authors, we’re writing about life, but in encapsulated vignettes that feature our struggles and dark times before we…| Mindy Carlson
The lake keeps secretsjust like the rest of us, holding them closeunder the watchful eyes.It sits there a while,a bleak tableau,painted in damp mist:a living wilderness.Once you’re inside, th…| Words and Coffee Writing
Earlier this year, my schedule made it so difficult to fit in writing time. Teaching 7 classes, some over their enrollment limit, and being the main transportation source for my kids to their sports and other activities made life overwhelming at times. It’s a good kind of overwhelming, because I enjoy my job, and IContinue reading "My Favorite Tip for Writing with Limited Time"| Words and Coffee Writing
“Why can’t my life be a fairy tale?” It’s the refrain of every heroine in every romance novel and movie. Or—why limit ourselves?—it’s in every novel on the shelf and movie streaming through the int…| Mindy Carlson
Hello bookworms! I’ve got a special post for you today. After doing a recent guest post for another blog The Reading Palette, Amisha asked if I’d like to do an interview with her. Given the great kindness she’s already shown me, how could I say no? My author interview focuses on the inspiration behind my writing, current projects, and more. If you’d like to check out my interview, simply click here or go to https://thereadingpalette.com/2025/05/30/meet-horror-author-jonathan-pongrat...| Jonathan Pongratz
I make a cold brew coffee with honey, lavender syrup, and almond milk every morning. And not a small one, either. Large. Very Large. My coffee–doctored with almond milk, honey, and lavender s…| Mindy Carlson
I like to people-watch. It’s fun to imagine stories about the humans who cross your path. I was at the mall today and couldn’t help but notice the woman strutting down the corridor in front of me. I thought she... Continue Reading →| Sue Spitulnik
Is it more important to commune with the cat, or to write another few paragraphs? How determined am I to keep my pen out of her paws, or maneuver the trackpad away from her haunches? The post What’s Your Hazel Test? first appeared on Anne Carley Creative.| Anne Carley Creative
You might say that the leaks are the places where our creative flow gets diverted from a clear, moving stream off into clogged-up, murky bogs. The post Identify Your Energy Leaks first appeared on Anne Carley Creative.| Anne Carley Creative
What if our whole construct is just fundamentally bogus? Why prejudge ourselves out of possibilities? The post Avoid Invented Roadblocks first appeared on Anne Carley Creative.| Anne Carley Creative
Everything’s subject to change, so routine and habits may not take us all the way there. We may need to take a pause. What's on your list of go-to's when you recognize the need to rest and recharge? The post Write. Rest. Repeat. first appeared on Anne Carley Creative.| Anne Carley Creative
It's getting intense out there. Incompetence and misinformation surround us. Who and what will we trust with our creative work? The post How Do We Trust in a Broligarchy? first appeared on Anne Carley Creative.| Anne Carley Creative
Here are some life lessons I’ve gleaned during our first six months together. They might benefit you in your creative pursuits. The post Hibernate with Hazel first appeared on Anne Carley Creative.| Anne Carley Creative
This weekend was Malice Domestic and the Agatha Awards. Malice Domestic is a conference celebrating traditional mysteries, cozies, and softer thrillers and noir novels. Malice has the reputation fo…| Mindy Carlson
Last time we spoke, I was in a bit of a spiral. Part of that was because it was February. Part of it was the specific ways the world is fracturing under our feet. The world hasn’t gotten bett…| Mindy Carlson
For a number of years now (I’m too lazy to look back in my past blogs and newsletters to give you a precise number), I’ve selected One Little Word to help me focus my intentions for the coming year…| Mindy Carlson
Writers typically need to place their words somewhere. Scrivener has long been an admired application for writers. Since I got it last year I thought I would share my first impressions to potential…| Me & Ink
Life did that phenomenon where it swallowed me up whole, while beats of time strummed its tick-tock tune in the back of my mind.| Steps In Between
I am excited to report that I have once again gotten my Bamboo Spark to work. It's a gadget that converts my handwriting to digital text that I can then email to myself. The last time I tried to use it, I got nothing but error messages when I clicked the "Convert to Text" button. But I reinstalled the app on my phone and it's working again! That means I will likely be writing more, especially poetry. I find words come more easily with a pen in my hand than with a keyboard at my...| Another Fearless Year
Today I have two things to share: My new column on Patheos.com, and Flowers of spring Dreaming of Justice & Mercy I have a new column on Patheos.com that is titled Dreaming of Justice & Mercy. It only has one article so far, but I plan to add one or two a week, focusing on narrative nonfiction. This new column is a way for me to reach more readers who will likely never find this little blog-o-mine. I hope you will check it out. My first article is titled "How Can You Find God's Redeeming...| Another Fearless Year
Transcript from opening remarks by our keynote speaker, Professor Juniper Thrust And now the question will always be – where to start – you see, you see? Never easy is it. Like sponge cakes, homemade aphrodisiacs and garden furniture, it looks a doddle. But let’s take garden furniture. Where would you start? No, nothing in […]| Nefny Writes
It’s that time of year again–Holiday Gifting Season! My theme for 2023 is Care and Nurturing of Creativity. Sometimes that care looks like alone time and sometimes it looks like time sp…| Mindy Carlson
Hi everyone, I thought I’d give you an update on how things are going in the tortured poets department. Stepping away from Substack -was it a good idea? You may remember I took the decision last mo…| Kathryn Anna Marshall
Well, well, well, if it isn’t my sworn enemy – summer! I had to go back through my archives and check because I couldn’t actually remember when the last time I wrote a blog post w…| Trey Stone, Author
I’m spending 2024 doing some tidying up. Essentially, I’m going through all my old projects, my forgotten manuscripts, things I wrote ages ago and put away in a cloud folder somewhere, …| Trey Stone, Author
I have exciting news! My poetry book, in so few words, is a finalist in the American Book Fest awards in the Poetry: Religious category! I had almost forgotten I entered this contest. Although my book was not a winner, it was in the top...| Another Fearless Year
In this post I share the poem I wrote during my CREW group at the WCCW Conference in California last week.| Another Fearless Year
What I've learned about SEO in writing my Dreaming of Justice & Mercy column for Patheos.com.| Another Fearless Year
In an attempt to go through a ton of my old writing, in what I’m calling my Year Of A Thousand Projects, I’m trying very hard to not write anything new. Sure, there’s an odd short…| Trey Stone, Author
I’ve just sat at my desk upon returning from a writer’s retreat and community I adore. As usual, the whiplash of the weekend passing by so quickly sees me beside myself. I am brimming over with new…| the water and the gills
Our ancestors were no less given to ways of foretelling the| Historical and Regency Romance UK
As a romance writer, you rapidly get used to being put down| Historical and Regency Romance UK
So often we're busy measuring our lives and our success by the lacks--what we haven't accomplished yet, our goals that we feel we've fallen short of. But what if we flip that around—look not at the empty space in our glass, but how much we've managed to fill it?| FoxPrint Editorial
You wait until the sound of his footsteps fade from earshot and you slump into your chair, putting two fingers to your forehead. You pull the trigger. You have ten minutes to decompress, get back t…| The Cabinet of Heed
After more than one pintI miss the last train again.We put on your father’s records.Stolichnaya and A Clockwork Orange. We know that we are friends.And all I want is the smell of you,the heat of yo…| The Cabinet of Heed
Humanity’s last ship, Our Finest Moment, began burning less than twenty minutes after leaving the port. We all knew we were dead meat when we boarded the ship, but we were expecting to at least get…| The Cabinet of Heed
Olive arrived at the bus stop encumbered with bags, feeling like a packhorse. The bench was full. She sank deeper into her shoes. The length of the queue suggested there would be no seats left by t…| The Cabinet of Heed
You laugh in your sleep. The bed quivers beneath me as your body shakes. You never remember in the morning. Smiling in puzzlement at my amusement. It was your night time laughter that ensnared me l…| The Cabinet of Heed
NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE. You have twenty-four hours to vacate the premises. The Sale of the Property located at 502 North Wendon Street will be held between the hours of 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM, Ju…| The Cabinet of Heed
I worked there for thirty years, I enjoyed my job, I had the responsibility of being a liaison for public events, and since we had been colonialized, we partook in demonstrations as a display of ou…| The Cabinet of Heed
Half my hair fell out when you died. and wisps of baby hair sprouted. The hairdresser thought it was funny – baby hair bouncing among my grey. But the new hair also fell out, tiny tufts of so…| The Cabinet of Heed
On orange days hell is hammocked in the plastic net satsumas come in. You always cut your fingers on it because the scissors are never near enough, and the pulling kind of helps. You do not actuall…| The Cabinet of Heed
The night before he was killed by an electric eel, Pedro had hung multicoloured lanterns outside his hut, perched as it was in stilts on the muddy banks of the great river. Perhaps he knew what awa…| The Cabinet of Heed
