Encouragement
The Good Old Days – Not! by Brenda J. Wood
Ah yes! We like to talk about the good old days when life was tougher than Mom’s free-range chicken. We embellish our stories: like that commercial that boasts of walking nine miles to school, uphill both ways, through a blizzard, wearing nothing but your dad’s cast-off pajamas! Life without electricity, neighbours, and indoor facilities sounds… Read more »
5 Fears that Immobilize Writers by Steph Beth Nickel
It takes courage to parachute out of a plane, to ski down a mountain—and to write. “Why?” you ask. Writers must overcome the following fears—and so many more: Does the world really need one more book, blog post or article? No matter how many times we’ve asked and answered this question, there are quiet moments… Read more »
Worth the Risk by Pamela Mytroen
Do you ever worry that after you have invested days, weeks, and months researching and writing a manuscript that it will not be publishable and that you will have wasted your time? That is my biggest fear about writing. Time. It is so valuable and there are no guarantees that you will see a return for… Read more »
A Celebration Story by Violet Nesdoly
It’s gone missing! It was 12:25 p.m. on Tuesday, August 16, when we left the rest stop on Highway 97 to continue traveling south toward Prince George. We were on our way home from Dawson Creek, B.C. after spending three weeks with our daughter’s family. The picnic table we’d found, hidden from the road by… Read more »
Celebrating Family by Janice L Dick
I first saw this picture on a card I received years ago from someone with a sense of humour that matches mine. I displayed it in my house recently when my extended family came for a reunion. About a year ago, my husband and I offered to host a reunion for my family. It was… Read more »
Give Your Writing a Vacation by Violet Nesdoly
Are you going on vacation this summer? Are you taking your writing with you? Even asking such a question says something about the vocation, or avocation, that we love. For what nurse, accountant, librarian, or barista takes work with them on vacation? Yet as writers we do this all the time—or feel guilty if we… Read more »
“Summertime, and the living is easy …” by Janice L. Dick
Ha! Obviously, George Gershwin had a different perspective of summer than I do. Summertime living is busy and enjoyable, but not necessarily easy. There is yard work to do, added to the usual routine. When the living is busy, our writing can sometimes reach an impasse. Not that we’re blocked by lack of ideas. Often… Read more »
I Can Doesn’t Mean I Should by Steph Beth Nickel
The original version of this post appeared last month on Janet Sketchley’s blog, “Tenacity.” Oo, shiny! That’s how I often feel when I hear of a new opportunity. You too? I have what I refer to as the Butterfly Syndrome. I love to flit from one thing to the next to the next and then… Read more »
Take Time to Breathe
Is your To Do list anything like mine? So long you’re always moving things from one day to the next to the next? How about your To Be Read pile? Can you never find enough time to read the stack of books that just keeps growing and growing and growing? And then there’s you’re writing…. Read more »
It Doesn’t Feel Like Spring by Janice L Dick
I’m watching the snow fall heavily outside my office window on this early March day. It’s beautiful. We haven’t had much snow this year so it’s welcome, but it certainly doesn’t feel like spring.