Category: Challenges
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Not a Poet…and I Know It

When I took the single creative writing course my high school offered, it was a one-semester elective with a poetry unit and a fiction unit. I was a senior, and I knew the teacher from when he’d started a creative writing group at the junior high four years earlier, when I was in eighth grade.…
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I’m Back!

First, of course, I’m back on the blog after a pretty long hiatus, so let me give you a quick update! After signing with my literary agent at the tail end of July, I dove into some final revisions of my manuscript before she began submitting it to editors, and then she and I spent…
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Practice Makes Better

Are you tired of writing & childbirth comparisons yet? I made one a few months back, though it might not have been quite the metaphor you expected. Today I have a new one! In lieu of attending the Historical Novel Society’s annual conference last month (my oldest’s softball tournament got in the way!), I gifted…
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Saturday Six #29: The Surprises of Parenting

I wanted to be a parent for as long as I can remember, and I fully recognize that I am one of the fortunate ones who was able to realize this dream. Being a parent is one of the most tiring, thankless, neverending jobs. Actually, I like to think of it more as a “practice”…
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Saturday Six #28: When I Kept Going

When I was ten years old, my parents gave me the thrill of my life: they finally agreed to adopt a cat. We chose a cat at the shelter and named him Punkin (Punky for short), a name I pulled straight out of a what-to-name-your-pet book filled with photos of fluffy felines. Punky was arguably…
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Saturday Six #27: When I Could Have Given Up

Back in March, I participated in my first pitch event on Twitter (you can read about that experience here!). While I didn’t come away with any likes from agents that first time around, I garnered enough benefits to do it again, which I did on June 3, armed with three brand-new pitches (for the same…
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Time Is (Not) On My Side

Every once in a while, “How I Got My Agent” stories trend on Writing Twitter. At first, I gobbled these up, drawing encouragement from the sheer variety of journeys. There is no such thing as normal in the publishing industry, no matter the stage. Eventually, though, I had to stop reading them. I got overwhelmed…
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Saturday Six #22: Furlough Memories

Today is the one-year anniversary of my last day of work before “pandemic furlough.” Because the funding for my salary relies heavily on tourism, and because tourism shut down last spring, our entire department was placed on furlough. Initially, we were supposed to be off for two months, but as the pandemic stretched on, the…
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Take the “Before” Picture

I’ve been on a bit of a journey during the pandemic. I don’t want this to sound boastful, but I’m really excited about the result. In terms of how proud I am of myself, this ranks right up there with my three VBACs. Three VBACs means I’ve given birth to four kids, and as is…
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Saturday Six #18: COVID Anniversary

I came across a hand-written list at work yesterday, compiled a little over a year ago when I was preparing to take a natural egg dyeing museum program to almost 40 local classrooms. Not a single one of those programs happened. The note felt like it had been written in another lifetime, by another person.…