This room is an artistic blend of old and new. An antique desk recalls images of writers from days gone by. The uncluttered classic furnishings in the study inspire introspection and calm, while the light infused olive colored walls throughout the suite offer an openness and brightness that stirs a calling to creativity and quietude […]
The first item purchased for the Hotel Floyd Writer’s Suite came from Daniel Bower’s antique shop. An antique wooden desk with a pull down table and various drawers and letter slots became a symbol linking the past with the present. At the start of the hotel construction, a small group of us from The Floyd […]
I can’t find my working notebook or an available empty one, so I started this on the back of a used envelope. Now at the keyboard, I’m wearing a bright orange Halloween cat cap with black ears that stick up because having it on helps me to keep my sense of humor. My office has […]
AKA: Why I can’t join a book club. Although I’ve never been a bookworm, I’ve read my share of books, many of which have acted as developmental and cultural milestones in my life. In elementary school I was the kind of kid who would clip the smallest newspaper story I could find for current events […]
Musing Woman recently mused on her five strengths as a writer and asked me to do the same. Although most of us aren’t very comfortable pointing out what we’re good at, it seems like a useful exercise to affirm five strengths rather than five deadly sins or weaknesses. Here’s what I came up with: 1. […]
The secret to writing a book? I think it’s this: Take good notes and write often enough that it starts to accumulate. ~ Colleen, from The Jim and Dan Stories As a writer, the most important discipline I’ve learned is to take notes when the dictation of writing begins. I drop everything, resort to writing […]
Although my writer’s bio says that “Dear Abby, How can I get rid of freckles?” was my first published piece at the age of 11, my writing career officially began the first time I was paid for my writing. I was a full-time young mother at the time who couldn’t afford a subscription to my […]
This I know: If you’re in your twenties and you think nothing of spending a couple hours working on a few lines of a poem, if you do that consistently day after day, it’s bound to lead somewhere. If you spend time developing whatever it is you’re compelled to do, it will eventually come to […]
Narrative is what I come up with when I put my niece to bed and she says, “Tell me a story.” I tell her a story, I don’t tell her an article. ~ Janet Rae Brooks, Salt Lake Tribune My friend Mara who is studying creative writing at Hollins University (VA) tells me that the […]
The big event of the day yesterday was the Stanley Steemer guys coming over to steam clean my twenty-three year old burnt orange carpet. In the fifteen years we’ve lived in our cabin, I’ve washed the carpet once. After renting a steamer and doing the work myself, I decided I didn’t want to do it […]
The following is Part II of “My Love/Hate Romance with Writing.” You can read Part I HERE. On the very last day of the Roanoke Times columnist submission deadline, I sent in the requested three samples of writing. I was still ambivalent, but rather than not submit at all, I decided to lower expectations by […]
AKA: She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not As soon as I hit the SEND button, emailing my letter of application for a possible Roanoke Times columnist position, I started to come up with excuses for why I couldn’t do it if I was chosen. In early January 2007, when the “Call for Columnists” was […]
