Category: Writing
Stealth Teflon – the Secret Strength of Passivity
Not too long ago I was told that I was perceived as passive. Most people who know me will probably be surprised to hear this, but I wasn’t that surprised because I had been passive […]
The Fallacy of the Chaotic Creative
I recently read the tidying book that was so popular a couple of years ago (yeah, I’m always behind with the best sellers), “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up.” I have always been quite tidy, […]
Blogging Paralysis
Blogging Paralysis In the summer of 2016 I was working on my second novel, and let my blog lapse, for what I thought would be short break. Weeks turned into months, with an occasional post […]
I’m Baaaack
Once upon a time I wrote a novel. I had never written an entire novel before so I wasn’t sure how to do it. I just opened up my subconscious and let it all tumble […]
Taking a few weeks off
Hi faithful readers. Between the collapse of Booktrope and the extra work that has created for me as I get my one published novel back out there in the world, and the need to have […]
It’s Not the Writing that Scares Me
There’s a saying, “write what scares you.” In March I did the Moth Story Slam. Writing the story wasn’t especially scary. It brought up some unpleasant memories, but it wasn’t scary. You want to know […]
Further Thoughts on the Closing of Booktrope
When I got the news that Booktrope is closing, I was on day 3 of a vacation in Europe. I had just awoken to my first full day in Prague, and, as is my custom, […]
Aaaaand, Things Take a Sharp Turn
The day after my last post I learned that my publisher, Booktrope, is going out of business at the end of May. This isn’t entirely unexpected as there had been some recent turnover and drama, […]
WIP Wednesday
I’ve been quiet lately. Last week I was sick, and this week I am sequestering myself to work on my next book – a sequel to Raising John. Here’s a sample from the beginning. This […]
Crowdsourcing for My Tagline
I’ve been lax about updating my blog for the past few weeks. First it was The Moth and now it’s the interminable task of updating my website and figuring out how to market Raising John […]
Technical Difficulties
This week I was going to post my story in written form, along with the link to my Moth performance, but I’m having a hard time finding out where they store the recordings. I know […]
How to Do a Live Story
I missed my Wednesday post this week, but I have a reason. I was hard at work on a story for the Moth Story Slam. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s an offshoot of […]
Unearthing the Past
I spent most of my free time this week going through old family photos, letters and assorted mementos. A few years ago I became the custodian of these materials, distributed among several large and decrepit […]
Blog Within a Blog
I’m taking a sick day today, but providentially, it’s also the day my interview is out on Beach Bound Books. Please click through and have a read here.
Pantsing versus Plotting and the Emergence of a New Work Style
As I have mentioned in previous posts, I’m working on the sequel to Raising John. As I have not yet mentioned, I recently made a commitment to my book manager at Booktrope to publish it […]
Nearly Wordless Wednesday
Yesterday I helped with my employer’s annual holiday party for kids in need, which included shuttling about 92 million boxes of inflatable decorations on the freight elevator. What I really wanted to do was stab […]
The Glamorous Life of a Writer/Airplane Mechanic
Four days a week I work overnight at SeaTac airport. I report for work at 9 PM and get off in the wee or not-so-wee hours of the morning, depending on the workload. When I […]
Remember My Writing Career?
Remember how, in addition to becoming an airplane mechanic, I was also into writing? Remember how I wrote a book? And published it myself? Well, about a year ago, I signed on with Booktrope to […]
Random Thoughts on Judgment, Paleo and Grammar
I have this folder called “Post Ideas.” This is where I dump blog post ideas when I have a flash of inspiration but I’m not in a position to write the post right then. Sometimes […]
The Possible Will Take a Little While
Back when I was working at Microsoft I had no free time because I was working all the time. Then I left Microsoft and looked forward to having lots of time to catch up on […]
Goals of the Achievable Sort
About a year ago I got a fitbit. For the uninitiated, it’s a device you either clip to your clothes or wear on your wrist to track activity. I got it because I suspected I […]
Why and How I Write
In honor of hitting my 200 blog post milestone, I wrote this post in response to the question: “explain how you write and what inspires you.” A little over ten years ago, after saying for […]
Decisions, Decisions – More from the Trenches of Indie Pub
After 10 months of DIY book marketing, I’m ready to try something new, I think. I have been given the chance to republish my book through a hybrid publishing service and let them direct my […]
Traveling, Writing, and Following Your Dreams
I wrote this in response to the question, “How has travel influenced your writing?” Some people know where they’re going in life from a very young age. When I was in first grade, I planned to […]
Shameless Self-Promotion, or Five Reasons to Attend My Reading
This week, I’m 7 days away from my first bookstore author reading, so here’s some shameless promotion of same. If you’re in the Seattle area (or wish to visit – it’s lovely this time of […]
Bookselling – the Saga Continues
A couple of years ago, when I was deep in the weeds of editing my novel, Raising John, I naively believed that editing was the hard part. Make no mistake, it was hard – it was […]
More Stories from the Trenches of Indie Publishing
This has been such an interesting process that I want to keep sharing my experiences with my wonderful readers. I’m on a three-week break from airplane school, so I am using the time to do […]
As It Turns Out – Writing the Book Was the Easy Part
(Corrected from the original to reflect correct Amazon ranking. I originally stated my best was 2582, but it was actually 1287 for e-books. The lower ranking included my print edition.) As many of my readers […]
I’ve Finally Gone and Done It
I’ve published my book! Please bear with me for this commercial blog post. I’ll return you to your regularly scheduled program of travel stories and philosophical musings next week. But for now – I PUBLISHED A […]
The Often Convoluted Road to Indie Publishing a Book
I’m finally done. Galleys proofed, cover finalized, acknowledgements made. I’m ready to publish my book! I’ll have a link up soon, but in the meantime, you might be interested in hearing what all goes into […]
Notes from the Trenches of Indie Publishing
Happy New Year, readers. My first novel releases on January 25. Here are some things I have learned on the way to indie publication. 1. In the old days you pounded the pavement with your […]
In Honor of NaNoWriMo
Back in the days when I did NaNoWriMo yearly I developed a strategy that helped me keep writing when my ideas dried up: two characters, the writer and the therapist. They got together whenever I needed to […]
What? More Revisions?
A few months ago I entered my manuscript in two literary contests I didn’t win either, but I was a semi-finalist in one of them (yay). I also received two critiques for each contest. Three […]
Scenes From a Writing Weekend
Last weekend, driven by a prearranged date with an editor, I finally buckled down and wrote the 4.5 scenes that I believe my book needed in order to be complete. I had spent many hours […]
A Novel’s Worth of Blog Posts
Dingdingdingdingding! I have reached a milestone. This is my hundredth blog post. Do I get a prize? Does the International Blog Registry hand out plaques or commemorative clocks for this achievement? No? OK, I’ll just […]
Sometimes the Best Way to Cure Decision Fatigue is to Make a Decision
As my regular readers know, I have written and revised a novel. When I last mentioned it, I had finished some heavy revisions and needed to write a few more chapters. Since then I have […]
And the Winners Are …
Funniest – Luc Santos-Dumont: “Testosterone is the most dangerous drug.” Pithiest – M.S.: “Having children pierced my heart’s shell.” Thanks to all who entered, and please know that the judging was hard because all the entries were […]
Contest – Six Word Memoir – enter by March 15
Time to have some fun. Try your hand at a six-word memoir. For ideas, there’s a Wikipedia entry on the topic, with some good samples. I will award 2 prizes. One to the wittiest entry […]
Memoirs – Six Words and More
Recently I submitted an entry for a six-word memoir contest. The prize is admission to a memoir writing retreat. It was a great exercise in pithiness and it reminded me that I want to write […]
Synopsis Flopsis
Recently I needed to update my novel’s synopsis in order to enter the manuscript in a literary contest. I hadn’t looked at my synopsis since before I revised my novel, so I knew it would […]
Maybe You DO Know What You’re Doing
When I first drafted my novel Raising John, I chose that title because it fit with what I was trying to express, and it was the first title that came to mind. When I sent […]
If You Wrote Well Once, You Will Write Well Again
Much as I used to believe that I must keep an iron grip on any words I have written because I don’t want to lose word count, I also used to believe that I if […]
Hi, I Just Vomited My Subconscious Into a Word Document. Would You Like to Read It?
This is the thought I had when I started showing my manuscript to my beta readers. I am very happy to have people willing to read and critique my work, and I was excited to […]
I Am a Talentless Hack
It always happens when I get deep into writing. I start out confident, but at some point along the way I start to doubt myself. It might be because it’s late and I am stuck; […]
Update on the Novel
After 18 fallow months, I spent a recent weekend sequestered and revising. I went into the weekend thinking that it would be the first of many needed in order to get my manuscript up to […]
Don’t Worry – There Will Always Be More Words
One of the humps I have had to get over as I become a better fiction writer is the idea that I must keep an iron grip on any words I have committed to paper […]
All Hail the Subconscious
Back when I was in college one of my professors assigned our final paper, due about a month hence, then admonished “don’t forget to give yourself time to let your subconscious work for you.” At […]
Who Decides Value? Reflections on Publishing and Self Promotion
A few months ago I read this article, which is partly about free education and the Clemente Course, but also about a curator and teacher who pushes his students to question social values about art. […]
Writing Versus Sleep
When I used to dream about what I wanted to do as an adult, “go to bed every night at the same time and get up at the same time every morning” was not on […]
A Rough Guide to Novelating – Part II
After you have slogged away long enough to have a manuscript’s worth of words, there are the revisions. I thought that banging out a lot of words was hard, and it was, but it was […]
A Rough Guide to Novelating – Part I
Bookstores and the Internet are littered with guides to writing a novel. Some recommend working at a set time every weekend. Some advise aspiring writers to turn out a certain number of pages every day. […]
Back in the Saddle
Back when I started this blog, I intended to write about the process of writing a novel, but I also knew that I would be happy just to establish a regular publishing schedule. I think […]
Men’s fiction
Last fall, over dinner at a writing retreat, one of the instructors commented that she would like to see people start referring to the works of male novelists as “men’s fiction.” She went onto say […]
Can you Like the Writing and Dislike the Writer? Robertson Davies’ comments on Lolita
I have loved Robertson Davies’ books ever since I discovered the Salterton Trilogy about 15 years ago. He’s funny, he’s erudite, and man, could he ever spin a yarn. Then, a few months ago I […]
Why words matter
The other night I was out on my standard “after dark short route” evening bike ride. I go up the paved Issaquah-Preston trail to the Issaquah Highlands and on up to Grand Ridge Drive. If […]
Blockage
I get blocked about writing, but I get blocked about other stuff too. Exercise, work tasks, housecleaning. With all the stuff in life that has to get done, often enough I find myself stuck and […]
Novel Writing for the Imperfect
You ever have those conversations with people where you realize that they have a completely delusional idea of who you are? For example, I tell people that I finished a manuscript and they get the […]
Sometimes it’s Better to Tell Than to Show
Maybe I should just stop reading any advice about writing. I say this because one of the currently popular writing rules is that you should show, not tell. Meaning, if you want to let your […]
The Elation and Agony of Feedback
As I have traveled the road from non-writer to owner of a nearly completed manuscript I have solicited and received quite a few critiques. Some came from friends, who have been wonderfully supportive but not […]
Your Stay in Federal Prison
Back in the days when I dreamed of writing a novel, but had not yet written one, I often wondered about book research. They always say “write what you know” but in fact that can […]
When Writing a Novel …
After numerous hideaway weekends and another Kauai hell week (those words shouldn’t go together, but here they do) I believed I had a saleable manuscript. It was spring of 2010. It was at this point […]
About That Novel
Since I started this blog, several people have asked when my novel will be finished and how I managed to write it. I don’t have a simple answer to either question but since people are […]
I’ll Begin at the Beginning
For a long time now, I have wanted to write for a living. Not technical manuals or freelance articles, but novels. I wanted to write novels that people would pay to read. And yet, I […]
Jennifer Lesher 