Blanket Tour for Diana Raab

Tomorrow begins National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a month of education that began in 1985. We at WOW-Women on Writing hope you, and the women you love, are well educated about a disease that affects one in eight women over their lifetime. You can find info at the U.S. National Institute of Health but you can also learn about breast cancer from the experiences of others. Thirty one writers have...

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10 comments 31 days of blogging, blanket tour, breast cancer awareness, Diana Raab, Healing with Words

Time to Break for Gratitude

Gratitude. A word that needs to have a permanent place in my life. All too many times, the complaining button gets stuck, and on and on I go. Wah, wah, whine, whine. Sometimes, I make myself sick from hearing it!In her Emerging Writers blog and The Prosperous Writer newsletter, author Christina Katz has been doing a series entitled, ’52 Qualities of Prosperous Writers’. The quality highlighted for...

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4 comments 'The Prosperous Writer', Christina Katz, gratitude, Jill Earl

Interview with Spring 2010 Flash Fiction Runner-Up: Doris Wright

Doris’s Bio: Doris first saw the light of day in Panama, was reared in Germany, France and various US locations, served (briefly) as a hand on a Chinese junk, gave birth on St. Croix, and, more recently, rode the back roads of West Africa in cobbled-together buses and vans. In between some of that activity, she received a bachelor’s degree from Spring Hill College, worked as a teacher, newspaper...

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Leave a Comment Anne Greenawalt, Doris Deluca, Runner up, Spring 2010 Flash Fiction Contest

Reading and Writing: It's All Subjective, Isn't It?

When I write something, I like to do the best I can. When it is for a newspaper article, I try to keep a balance to the information I put together. When it is for a corporate client, I keep in mind the audience the client is trying to serve. When it is my fiction, I keep my reader in mind.But while putting in my best efforts, I also need to keep in mind some of the elements that can impact the final product and often a reader's subjectivity is one of the major items that needs to be considered....

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2 comments Elizabeth King Humphrey, reading writers, write for readers, writing for your reader

P.O.V.:The Magic of One, Two or Three

Three people. One event. Three points of view. All three vary because, face it, each person keys in on certain sensory details that stand out or appeal to them. Each person brings past experiences to the situation and formulates an opinion or perspective based on those elements.The same principle surrounds point of view in storytelling. If you put insert-magical-numbercharacters in one scene, each...

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4 comments creating rhythm, first person, LuAnn Schindler, narrator, point of view, POV, second person, storytelling, third person

Friday Speak Out!: Bookmaking--Commonplace!, Guest Post by Patricia Anne McGoldrick

Bookmaking--Commonplace!by Patricia Anne McGoldrickEarlier this year, I contributed a column for the Friday Speak Out: Bookmaking—For You, For Me!Lately, I have read several posts by writers blogging about the challenges of writing on a full-time basis, staying up-to-date on the latest, being swept into a vortex of social media drains on their time. Overwhelmed, many of us are unable to process that...

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2 comments bookmaking, Friday Speak Out, Patricia McGoldrick

The Word Queen: Editing, Teaching, Coaching, and Publishing

The Word Queen is better known as Keidi Keating, who lives in the Malaga province of Spain. She moved there from London in 2004 and has enjoyed life in the sun ever since.Keidi trained as a journalist in 1999. After a stint as a local newspaper reporter in the UK, Keidi stepped up the career ladder and became a corporate communications writer for a range of high-profile companies/associations, such...

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2 comments book editing, editing services, Keidi Keating, Margo L. Dill, self publishing, writing coach

Con your way out of Negative Thinking with a Pros & Cons List

“I’m not good enough to be a writer.” “Why would anyone publish my work?” “This is such crap!” Every writer goes through this at various points of his or her writing career. Negative thinking has a way of creeping up slowly until it all piles up on top of you and keeps you from your writing goals. How do I know this? Because I’m going through it right now. I barely write anything these days because of various life stressors (single parenting, work, finances, etc). Not to mention...

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4 comments business writing, Negative Thinking, writing tips

Interview with Spring '10 Contest Runner-Up Eileen Granfors

Eileen’s Bio:Eileen Granfors lives in Santa Clarita, California. A former army brat, Eileen is a proud UCLA alum. She joined the UCLA Writers’ Extension Program after retiring from thirty-four years of teaching high school English. She has completed two novels and is working on a historical novel, A Tale of Two Cities: The Prequel. She is currently seeking representation for her YA novel, Marisol’s...

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1 comment Contestant interview, Eileen Granfors, Jill Earl, Spring 2010 Flash Fiction Contest

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

Recently at a meeting of my writer’s group some of the published writers were encouraging the unpublished writers to send their work out. One member described sending his work out like sending it to “the Big Bad Wolf”. Like the furry, big toothed guy in the fairy tale, agents, publishers and editors(let’s call them the Big 3)have a lot of power. It may not be life and death. An agent hasn’t gobbled me up…yet. But it feels like life or death sometimes when they’re judging something that...

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Leave a Comment Editors, literary agents, publishers

Writing is Exhilarating

Mountain climbing, bungee jumping, skydiving and writing are challenging and exhilarating. It may seem strange to put writing in the same category as physically strenuous activities, but writing is strenuous, challenging and exhilarating. Writing is challenging in several ways. It takes: Thinking, planning and processing Finding the right subject Finding the right words Deciding what would...

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5 comments advice for writers, buck up, Cher'ley Grogg, dance, Exhilarating, music, pump up, writing challenges

Swingin’ Into September the ‘Write’ Way

The noticeably cooler air. Students heading back to school. Cozy fall sweaters paired with boots. Nature gearing up for its annual parade of color. For me, the arrival of September not only means the appearance of fall, my favorite season, but it also means hitting the homestretch when it comes to my writing. It’s when I turn my attention to my list of writing goals for a final check on my progress...

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2 comments Jill Earl, writing, writing goals

Friday Speak Out!: THE A-B-C’s of W-R-I-T-I-N-G, Guest Post by Joanne DeMaio

THE A-B-C’s of W-R-I-T-I-N-Gby Joanne DeMaioIt’s that time again. September means we’re tossing notebooks and pens and paper into our shopping cart, keeping the kids well stocked for a new school year. I say, toss in a few for yourself, too. Your town’s annual adult-ed schedule, and the local college’s non-credit courses, are just waiting for your enrollment. I tried it, and let me assure you this:...

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19 comments back to school tips, Friday Speak Out, Joanne DeMaio, writing inspiration

What is Your Writing Warm-Up?

As you are probably aware, there are many how-to novel writing books on the market. John Steinbeck's "Journal of a Novel" is one you may not have heard of. But it is one that deserves a space on your bookshelf of writing books. Never intended for publication, the "Journal" is a compilation of Steinbeck's letters to his editor Paul Covici.Using the letters as a warm-up to each day's work on Steinbeck's "East of Eden," the journal is inspiring while simultaneously of a how-to. Watching...

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2 comments Elizabeth King Humphrey, friends and fans, writing process

Bright Hub is Looking for Writers

We welcome Kelly Walborn, who is the director of training for the website, Bright Hub. They have several new writing opportunities they would like to share with WOW! readers. Kelly explains how to apply to Bright Hub, what types of writers they are looking for, and most important of all--how writers are compensated!WOW: Welcome, Kelly, and thanks for talking to The Muffin readers today about Bright...

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Leave a Comment bright hub, freelance writing for the web, Margo L. Dill

Spring '10 Contest Interview with Angelica R Jackson, 3rd place winner

Muffin readers, you're in for a treat. Today, we're going to get to know more about our third place winner in the Spring 2010 Flash Fiction contest, Angelica R. Jackson of Shingle Springs, California. If you haven't had the opportunity to read Angelica's story, Ebb Tide, head over to WOW! and give it a perusal.As a child, Angelica spent moving around southern California and attended nine different...

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1 comment Angelica R Jackson, LuAnn Schindler, Spring 2010 Flash Fiction Contest, WOW Winter 2008 flash fiction contest interview

Ruth Hartman, author of Pillow Talk, launches her blog tour!

& Book Giveaway Comments Contest!Ruth Hartman started out as a dental hygienist but morphed into a romance writer. She has fun working the dental industry into her romances. While Pillow Talk features a dental hygienist/tooth fairy, her next romance Flossophy of Grace also follows the love life of a dental hygienist. Who knew the dental world was so romantic?Ruth's first book, My Life in...

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27 comments author blog tour, book giveaway, dental hygienist, interview with Ruth Hartman, Pillow Talk, Romance Writing, Ruth J. Hartman, tooth fairy