Posts
Are You Ready for Publication?
Not your manuscript. You. Here’s the test: Strip down to your pre-fall Garden of Eden nakedness and stand on the fifty-yard line during halftime at the Super Bowl while everyone submits critiques of your body on the JumboTron. If you can handle that without buckets of drugs and/or a lifetime of therapy, then you’re probably…
Breaking Sedentary Habits Through Vertical Work Stations
by Michelle Discavage Today I bring you practical tips to break your life of sedentary habits. I think we all know that prolonged periods of sitting and sedentary lifestyles are not in our best interest. We know we should be exercising, lifting weights, and eating well. Right? But did you know that in the January 18,…
Letting Go of Appearances
You already know the signs when something’s got to give. Overscheduled and overtired, you dread what you once enjoyed. Overextended and over-budget, essentials find their way to negotiable status. Daily living takes on a frayed look, tattered around the edges, which you most likely recognize because you’ve been there before or you’ve been there a…
AWOL and Writing Conferences!
If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been AWOL from Defying Gravity, mainly because I’ve been busy pursuing my dreams and blogging over at Writer…Interrupted. So if you haven’t bookmarked or google connected with me there, I give you permission to click on over there and do it now. Go ahead, I’ll wait. That was quick! I…
Secrets of a Great Pitch by Agent Rachelle Gardner
Now that Writers’ Conference season has arrived, I wanted to go over some tips for pitching to agents and editors. We can probably all agree on the “don’ts” of pitching your project. Don’t pitch in the bathroom. Don’t pitch a novel that’s incomplete. Don’t pitch with your mouth full. What are some positive tips we…
Wendy and the Lost Boys by Julie Salamon
Julie Salamon undertakes a daunting task: writing a biography on Wendy Wasserstein, Pulitzer-Prize and Tony-award winning playwright. In fact, Wasserstein was the first woman to receive a Tony award, making her somewhat of a standard in theater studies. Through her plays, Wasserstein reflected the issues of the Baby Boomer woman: career, birth control, love, marriage,…
Pardon Me While I Attend the Revolution…
When starting a revolution, tell your wife by Ron Estrada One day in May of 2010, I announced to my wife that I’d started a tea party. This was shortly after I announced that I was running for precinct delegate (which doesn’t require “running” at all because they can’t give the job away). I described…
The Greatest Story
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13 (NIV) When the first characters appear on a blank page, as writers, we fall in love with these two-dimensional people. Under our penmanship, they grow, taking on personalities of their own and making the story come alive.…
How Do You Write When a Medical Crisis Hits?
“My mother? A stroke? How can this be?” These thoughts flew through the mind of my friend after her mom’s collapse and hospitalization. But they were only the beginning of the worries. “Will she recover? Can she ever go home? How can I help her? How can I keep working?” As pragmatic as that last…
The Sweet Rewards of Back to School!
This is my favorite time of year! The winds of fall bring fresh challenges, a renewal of perspectives and clean slates. Unexplored schoolbooks, sharpened pencils, excited children, motivated mama! I’ve found over the years, that *building up* the back-to-school plunge does wonders in terms of the ripple effect response in my kiddos. So every year…