Is It Time to Reevaluate Your Goals?

Thursday, July 03, 2025
“I’ve been in a writing funk.” “I just can’t get anywhere with my fiction.” “I haven’t written in weeks.” Writing friends and writers on social media have been making statements like these. Everyone seems to be in the doldrums. I know that I haven’t made any progress on the nonfiction proposal that was my primary writing goal for the year. What’s the reason? It is easy to blame...
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Interview with Isabel Cristina Legarda: Winter 2025 Flash Fiction Contest Third Place Winner

Tuesday, July 01, 2025
Isabel’s Bio: Isabel Cristina Legarda was born in the Philippines and spent her early childhood there before moving to the U.S. She is currently a practicing physician in Boston. Her work has appeared in the New York Quarterly, The Dewdrop, The Ekphrastic Review, Cleaver, Ruminate, Qu, and others. Her poetry chapbook Beyond the Galleons was published in April 2024 by Yellow Arrow Publishing. She...
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Interview with Shama Shams - WOW! Q2 Creative Nonfiction Essay Runner Up

Sunday, June 29, 2025
I'm excited to talk with Shama Shams, a writer who has traveled a long road to become a runner up with "What Does It Take to Be American?"  in the Q2 2025 Creative Nonfiction Essay Contest. You can learn more about Shama at https://www.writershama.com/ Shama Shams is a Seattle writer, speaker, and nonprofit advocate with an MA from Florida State University. Her memoir, She Called...
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Webb Writing Challenge

Thursday, June 26, 2025
Several years ago, my daughter introduced me to reading challenges and I have been loving them ever since. True, I don’t always complete them but I have fun trying. Reading challenges often led me to books, authors and genres I never would have chosen. Some I loved, some I didn’t but it did open me up to new things. And we all could use a little touch of the unexpected in our lives.Instead of a reading...
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Interview with Betsy Andrews Etchart: 2025 Q2 Essay Contest Runner Up

Sunday, June 22, 2025
Betsy’s Bio: Betsy Andrews Etchart’s award-winning articles have been featured in magazines throughout the Mountain West, and several poems for children have appeared in Cricket Magazine. She’s led large-scale public art projects with high schoolers, and teaches multimedia sculpture to elementary students through her company, ColorWheels, which focuses on building confidence and community through...
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Interview with Mihaela Stoicovici, WOW! Winter 2025 Flash Fiction Contest First Place Winner

Tuesday, June 17, 2025
Originally from Romania, Mihaela has been living in Tokyo and the US for the past 15 years. A former management consultant, she discovered her passion for creative writing quite recently after trying to encourage her own children to improve their language abilities. She admires the work Melissa Uchiyama is doing in Tokyo with children, eatenjapan.com. She is fascinated by myths, old tales, dreams...
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Interview with Brigid Boettler, Runner Up in the WOW! 2025 Q2 CNF Essay Contest

Sunday, June 15, 2025
  Brigid is a global health professional turned stay-at-home mom to twins. When she isn’t chipping playdough from couches or chauffeuring kids to ninja class Brigid works on women-led grassroots initiatives in Northeast Ohio. Creative writing is her throughline as she navigates motherhood in an era of chaos and climate change. Her children’s stories have made the shortlist in the 2024 WriteMentor...
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What if a Favorite Work is in the Public Domain?

Tuesday, June 10, 2025
The Dover cover.I recently discovered that one of my favorite childhood books is in the public domain. The book in question is the 1924 The Box-Car Children by Gertrude C. Warner. In 1942, a shorter version of the book was reissued by Albert Whitman and Company, and a whole series of books followed. Since 2023, Penguin Random House has published the series. Only the first book...
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Interview with Wendy Fontaine, WOW! Q2 2025 Creative Nonfiction Contest Runner Up

Sunday, June 08, 2025
Wendy Fontaine’s work has appeared in Jet Fuel Review, Short Reads, Sweet Lit, Sunlight Press, Under The Sun and elsewhere. She has received nonfiction prizes from Identity Theory, Hunger Mountain and Tiferet Journal, as well as nominations to the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net anthologies. A native New Englander, she currently resides in southern California and serves as the flash editor at...
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Writing with Your Five Senses

Thursday, June 05, 2025
Writing lessons can be found in surprising places. Like a Kindergarten classroom. Or more specifically, the bulletin board touting the five senses.Sight. Hearing. Touch. Smell. Taste.For years I’ve been told to use all five senses in my writing so the reader can feel more fully immersed in the reality of the world I’ve created. But, to be truthful, I’ve been leaning toward sight with the others occasionally...
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Unearthing True Crimes From the Archives

Tuesday, June 03, 2025
When I started my true crime podcast, Missing in the Carolinas, five years ago, I thought I would be focusing solely on missing persons cases in North and South Carolina. My creative muse had other ideas. Little did my muse know that scanning old newspaper archives would lead me to intriguing crimes from the past (many with no digital footprints) and inspire me to broaden the context of my storytelling. I...
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Interview with Katherine Scott Crawford, Runner Up in the Q2 Creative Nonfiction Essay Contest with "Only Water"

Saturday, May 31, 2025

 

Congratulations to Katherine Scott Crawford from Brevard, North Carolina for her amazing nonfiction essay titled:

Check out Katherine's submission, Only Water, as well as all the other winning entries and then stop back here to read Katherine's enlightening interview with Crystal J. Casavant-Otto from WOW! Women on Writing. 

Katherine’s Bio: 
Katherine Scott Crawford is the award-winning author of The Miniaturist’s Assistant and Keowee Valley. A former backpacking guide, adjunct professor, and recovering academic, her newspaper column appeared weekly across the U.S. and abroad, including in USA Today, The Detroit Free Press, and the Herald Scotland. Winner of a North Carolina Arts Award in Fiction, she holds an MFA in Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She’d rather be in the woods with her dog than anywhere else, enjoys curious people, adventure, and snow—and believes historical fiction the best way to time travel. An eleventh-generation Southerner, she directs writing retreats at a remote mountain lodge in Western North Carolina, where she lives with her family.

WOW: Katherine, thank you so much for taking time today to chat with me. Thank you also for your personal and touching entry into the Nonfiction Essay Contest and Congratulations! We have just a bit of time today so let's get to it!

Where do you write? What does your space look like? I’d love to know more about your mountain lodge - (dear reader - check out this view!)  >>>>>>

Katherine: I write in what I call my "Boffice": it's my bedroom plus office, which sits at the top floor of my house. My desk is in a corner of the room. It's an antique, sort of mission-style secretary which my mother-in-law refurbished years ago and gave to me. Unfortunately, it's probably killing my neck and back, as antique desks weren't built for modern computers--but it's hard to let it go. I have twinkle lights draped over the top, my grandmother's antique glass lamp, my storyboard nailed to the wall beside me, and my dog, Merlin, usually asleep at my feet. 

The mountain lodge where I direct writing retreats is the wonderful Earthshine Lodge in Lake Toxaway, North Carolina. I work with the fabulous folks at Earthshine to host writing retreats and workshops there for writers in all stages of their journeys once or twice per year. Earthshine is at a remote location at 3,000 feet with views of the Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests. It's heaven. (photo at right)

WOW: Let's just take a moment here - we are all absolutely jealous of that view from Earthshine Lodge. What a great place to work, and I love your support of others with the workshops! That begs the next question though, w
ho is your support, and what have you found to be most supportive in your writing life as well as in life in general? You are clearly a very busy writer, but who do you turn to when you need some support? 

Katherine:  My greatest support is my husband, Stuart. We met as camp counselors two weeks after I graduated from college. He is my biggest cheerleader, sounding board, and partner-in-parenting and life. I could not be a publishing writer without him. My family and friends, especially my parents and sister, show up for me in more ways than I can express, and often have had more confidence in my abilities than I have had over the years. I'm ridiculously lucky to have them in my life. Frankly, I also rely a great amount on my dog, and on the natural world, when I need support. A hike along the river, in the open air, gives me much of what I need when it comes to slowing down and listens to my creative voice. 

WOW: Oh Katherine, that makes my heart so happy! Support is so important and I love that you have a village supporting you! 

This is a favorite question of mine: Do you have advice for your younger self when it comes to making decisions, believing in yourself, and/or writing? What would your current self say to the younger you? 

Katherine: If I could tell my younger self anything (and not that I would actually listen; I've been pretty focused and headstrong my entire life), I'd tell her to take as many risks as possible when it comes to life, which creates writing: to say "yes" to every adventure, be it a study-abroad opportunity, classes, contests, internships, and more. To talk to teachers and professors. To check out writing groups, go to the poetry reading, ask to join classes she might not feel ready for, be brave. I'd encourage her to write, and to read, as much as is humanly possible, and to seek out people, environments, classes, and more which align with her passions and hopes. And then, to be unafraid to mess up. 

WOW: Well, I'd say that is great advice for anyone. If only our youthful selves would listen...

You have an impressive bio; it begs the ask - tell us more about your professional goals? Long term aspirations? 

Katherine:  Thank you! I want to keep writing and publishing novels, and to reach more readers. I'd love to teach in a low-residency MFA program or take on writing students of my own, and I'd love to direct writers' retreats overseas at some point. I long to marry two of my great loves, travel and writing, in any way I possibly can. 

WOW: Does Stuart know you're looking to marry again? Seriously though, I love those goals not just for you, but for many of us! I hope all your dreams come true (for you and Stuart that is!)

What advice do you have for others during turbulent times? What works or doesn’t work for you when it comes to dealing with stress and the pressures of everyday life? 

Katherine: This is such a great question, especially in our current national and world climate. My best advice--at least what I have found to be the most helpful for me as an individual and a creative person--is to rest when you can. To take the time to sit in the comfy chair, wrap yourself in a blanket, and close your eyes, even if it's for twenty minutes. To say "no" to unnecessary asks, and to be with yourself. 

Then, it's to reach out to the people and activities you love in small ways: call your people (for me it's my sister and best friends), even if it's just to hear their voices. Grab tapas and sangria at your favorite hometown restaurant. Walk in your neighborhood and let yourself enjoy the way the dandelions push their cheery yellow selves up through the cracks in the sidewalk, the house finches fighting with each other in the trees, the way your elderly neighbors hold hands on their nightly walk. Watch a favorite movie with your friend, spouse, or kids. Enjoy each other. And always, always, find a way to get outside in nature, wherever and however you can find it. This is the stuff of life, and it's all that really matters.

WOW: Katherine, thank you so much for that fabulous reminder. I find myself taking time to relax and that inner voice kicks in a reminds me of how much work there is to do. Your words resonate deeply with me. 

Thank you for your time today and for sharing your many talents with us and the world! I'm ordering The Miniature's Assistant and Keowee Valley right now and look forward to reading them. I'm also looking forward to being your WOW! Blog Tour Manager on your next book! Keep my email and cell phone number handy!

and until we meet again - enjoy your twinkle lights and that antique lamp!

Today's post was penned by Crystal J. Casavant-Otto

Crystal Casavant writes. 
Everything. 
If you follow her blog you have likely laid eyes on every thought she has ever had. Her debut novel, It Was Never About Me, Was It? is still a work in progress and shall be fully worthy sometime in 2025. She has written for WOW! Women on Writing, Bring on Lemons, and has been featured in several magazines and ezines relating to credit and collections as well as religious collections for confessional Lutherans. She runs a busy household full of intelligent, recalcitrant, and delightful humans who give her breath and keep her heart beating day after day. 

Crystal wears many hats (and not just the one in this photo) and fully believes in being in the moment and doing everything she can to improve the lives of those around her! The world may never know her name, but she prays that because of her, someone may smile a little brighter. She prides herself on doing nice things - yes, even for strangers! 


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Don't Underestimate the Power of Habit

Thursday, May 29, 2025
 Somehow, over the past month, I've become disconnected from my writing routine. I have thought about writing, and I certainly would have liked to have written. Yet, those thoughts never turned into action. The anti-muse that is busyness crept back in, whispered in my ear that there's far too much to do, and turned my attention away from my creative work.Oops, right?Over the past week,...
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Even Google Wants You to Have a Team

Tuesday, May 27, 2025
Recently I signed up for the Google Digital Marketing and E-Commerce Professional Certificate through Coursera. My library had scholarships available, and I’ve been wondering how much of the content would be useful to me, a freelance writer. I need to be visible online.  I want people to find my work especially that I am now preparing to self-publish. I’ve just completed the first course,...
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