Interruptions
Writing Through the Pain to Comfort Others
by Matt Patterson Some 20 years ago, I sat down at my desk in a noisy newsroom and began to bang out my weekly newspaper column for a small daily in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. I covered the courts and crime beat for The Daily Mining Gazette, but I tried my very best to distance those…
Writer Interrupted by…Unemployment
by Ron Estrada You’re fired. It’s not just a catchy phrase worthy of copywrite protection by billionaires turned reality show stars. It happens to all of us at least once in our professional lives. When it happens to the part-time writer, our first response may be, “The heck with it, now’s my chance to write…
Ways To Keep Writing When Caregiving Needs Increase
by Kayne Swain “Honey, I don’t feel so well. My heart feels like it’s going a hundred miles a minute and…I feel so short of breath. Can you check my blood pressure?” the elderly mother said. “Mom, I have to take the kids to the specialist and he wants to run several tests. We’ll be…
Homeschooling, Homesteading and Living to Write About It
by Mary L. Allen Cold weather has arrived in the mid-west! Usually this means fewer outside chores for yours truly, but this fall on our homestead, I still have pastured poultry field pens to move and a hundred chickens to feed. Then it’s time to tote wood from the shed up to the house for…
Sacrificial Moments in a Homeshool Fishing Booth
Two of my homeschooling friends hosted a Fall Party this weekend. Perfect weather for it, too. We had outdoor games such as a “caramel apple walk”, treasure hunts, egg-and-spoon relays and a picnic-bonfire with a guitar-led sing-along time. At the outset, I found myself with another mom, slightly older than me and a complete stranger,…
Writing After a Medical Crisis Hits Your Loved One
Last month’s article, How Do You Write When a Medical Crisis Hits, discussed how to keep on writing in the midst of dealing with an elderly parent being hospitalized. Once your beloved senior has been released from the hospital though, your interrupted writing should be back on course, right? Not necessarily. Even though they are…
Write Like an Eagle
What are your writing habits like? Do you wait for a break in your schedule before you sit down at your computer? Does the mood need to hit you? Do you only write when the moon is in the Seventh House and Jupiter aligns with Mars? (If you’re too young to get the reference, Google.)…
Balancing School with Writing
Writing fiction is, for most of us, rarely a full-time job; it’s a labor of love. And for most of us, finding the time to devote to our craft is a struggle between family and other responsibilities both inside and outside the home. It’s hard to create a balance between the life we love and…
On Writng and Life: There is a Time for Everything.
The preacher was right when he said in Ecclesiastes, there is a time for everything. Take the very first novel I completed. First, a violent storm in my personal life and then a storm by the name of Hurricane Ivan left me, my family, and our city devastated. But all was not lost. The citizens…
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,…