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Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) May Help Us Rethink Our Definition of Work

It’s too late for me to retire early. I already qualify for senior citizen discounts, But I found myself drawn towards listening to a podcast (New York Times The Daily) about FIRE, the acronym that stands for the Financial Independence Retire Early Movement.    Nadja Maril standing in front of her “Kitchen Garden” that provides inspiration for her prose and poetry. The premise is that if one…

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We Make Plans. The Universe Laughs.

Cancelled. My husband was waiting for the race to begin, the annual Great Chesapeake Bay Swim, launching from Sandy Point State Park in Annapolis, Maryland. Conditions looked highly favorable for the 4.4 mile swim. He had his wetsuit, his Gatorade, bananas, and goop. His face coated with sunblock, this year he’d purchased new polarized goggles. But 15 minutes before participants were to dive into…

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Your Book is About to Be Published. Now What?

Did you know that Amazon has a free author’s page? This added page on their site gives writers and editors who are included in anthologies as well as book authors, the opportunity to further publicize their work. Good news, yes. Except that it took me an hour last night to try to update my profile because I kept getting an “error message” that I was posting objectionable content. I was confused.…

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Unraveling Memories: Shaping Truth in Creative Nonfiction

How accurate does a historical account need to be, if a writer is presenting it as a narrative? For that matter, how accurate does a writer’s account of their own life need to be before they are criticized for exaggeration? How we portray ourselves and others, is something memoirists grapple with. Photo by Kaitlyn Jade on Pexels.com We call it “Creative Nonfiction” when a writer presents truth…

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Spring Gardening Prompts Writing and Recipes

We’ve got onions, potatoes, and peas growing in our garden this year. The peas will be ready for harvest six weeks from now, according to my husband who planted the newly sprouting seeds. In another part of the yard are the tomato plants, still very small. We got a late start. Perennial herbs: sage, oregano, rosemary, thyme, mint and dill made it through the winter. I’m waiting for my fresh…

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Redefining Mother's Day: Embracing All Maternal Influences with Joy

More than once, I celebrated Mother’s Day by honoring someone who is not a “mother,” because why should mothers have all the fun? What about woman who have acted in the capacity of mothers: aunts, friends, neighbors, cousins, nannies, older siblings? Cast your net wide, and I’m sure you can think of plenty of people who have cared for you in a maternal way, who may not have any living or…

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A Spring Visit to Ireland, a Writer's Paradise

Enniskerry, Glendalough—the names roll off my tongue as I recall my favorite Irish tunes. More wonderful names: Kilkenny the town, Kilkenny the castle, Waterford the Viking city, Waterford the name for crystal now manufactured in Poland. I may not have Gaelic blood running through my veins, but I’ve always felt a psychic connection through the music and stories to the Emerald Isle. Finally…

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Learn from an Older Author's Publishing Success

This week I’m trying something a little different— an interview with a colleague, providing me with the opportunity to introduce a new book. Delaware resident Morgan Golladay, seventy-seven years old, has retired from two jobs and started publishing in late 2019. Although she got a late start, she’s quickly making up for lost time. A Conversation with Author Morgan Golladay  The Song of the…

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Storytelling Inspired by Short Films at a Film Festival

In a world of screens, looking through a lens can inform our art as writers. An optometrist was explaining in a radio interview how our eyes become dry and our brains confused, spending hours in front of the computer screen. Spend time outside, she advices, take breaks and look out the window. My workspace is in front of a window. I find myself gazing at sky, wagging tails, the boxwood in need…

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Getting Published, The Challenge of Creating According to Theme

Coming soon, in just a few days, online will be the Spring Issue of Instant Noodles Literary Magazine.  The theme word for the Spring 2024 issue is “Instant.” As one of the contributing editors, I worried that the word “instant” might be challenging for some, but I figured writers are innovative and they’ d be up to the challenge.  Photo by Erik Mclean on Pexels.com In the nonfiction…

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Digital or Print- Which is Better? Navigating the Precarious Path to Publication.

To my great disappointment, a now shuttered online literary magazine, The Potato Soup Journal, has dismantled their website. This means my short story “The Perfect Picture,” one of my favorites, has disappeared. No longer available online, it can no longer be read. Would it have been better to have published it in a print magazine? At least then I’d have a physical copy. The solution, I tell…

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The Monetary Deficits of Writing What You Please

I’ve always been attracted to red. Photo by Hassan OUAJBIR on Pexels.com Hurrah. I finished my taxes. After three days of double-checking receipts and statements and mentally reliving the previous year of my life, my information has been relayed to my tax preparer, and I’m ready to get back to my daily routine. Now I have time to write. Not that my writing generates taxable income, but it does…

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Where to Submit When You're Trying to get Published

Never give up.

Chance or Calculation? I’ve been away from my desk a few days. This means I’m behind on my weekly challenge to myself to submit a few pieces of writing—stories, poetry, and essays– to publications that might publish them. Writers reading this know that uncomfortable feeling of wanting you work to get read, but the reluctance to spend time writing cover letters and selecting who might be…

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Memoir vs. Total Recall

This week's post focuses on selectivity.

In the political realm, the pundits have been talking about two elderly politicians—the likely candidates for president.  They’ve been talking about their memory problems. Both of them forget names. Both of them confuse names. Is it important? Or are the spokespersons for the various political interest groups looking for ways to tear the candidate they disagree with apart. It is probably a…

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Guilty Pleasure..Yes, I’m Talking Books

I was going to use the word reading, but I was really listening. Half of the books I enjoy these days are recorded books because I can listen and do various chores at the same time. I can also eat lunch and be entertained by a book without smearing avocado or salad dressing on its pages. And then if I really love the book, or just want to see it laid out on the page, I get a physical copy from…

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A New Orleans State of Mind

One of my favorite novels is A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. It won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1981 but unfortunately the author was not alive to enjoy his success. Written years earlier and published in 1980 due to the efforts of his mother and writer friend Walker Percy, Toole’s words live on. Set in the city of New Orleans, Toole’s hometown, the book aptly captures the…

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Transforming Facts into Fiction Might Just Give You the Inspirational Advantage

I’ve been feeling really good about something and I wasn’t sure why. What had changed in my daily routine to instill in me a sense of calm? Each morning, I spend several hours writing. Some days it’s poetry, other days it’s an essay, and other days it’s revisions on something previously written.  For months I’d been procrastinating about re-starting work on “the novel” I’ve been writing and…