This quote has taken on special significance since I’ve become a single mother. I’ve learned, over the last two years, how very vital it is to have backup – people who are there to catch you if you fall and who are willing to jump in with a willing helping hand. The same can be…
Author Archives: Mandy
Working on a WIP
One of the most difficult things to explain to my non-writer friends is the idea that I can have more than one work in progress. Of course, I must also then explain that with my six, wait, seven – I forgot about that one – current works, there’s not a finished manuscript in the bunch….
Blank Page
There is nothing more hopeful, nor more terrifying to me as a writer than a blank page. It stares at me, without even a cursor to break up the expanse of white. I write a few words, delete them, write a page number, a title, a chapter number, anything to break of the bleakness of…
Release the Monsters
When my first beta readers got back to me, I knew what they’d say. There’s not enough conflict. I have a difficult time releasing the monsters into my stories which means there’s rarely a dragon to slay, a force to defeat, a villain to conquest – even of the internal nature. To be honest, it’s a little…
I often think of those singers who audition for American Idol. Not the ones who are decent but lack any depth. No. The ones who make you cringe, who are featured in montages, who strut in front of the judges and say, “I’m awesome.” But they’re not. The viewers at home cover their faces with pillows,…
Finding a Spark
Every day I take walk three miles in a loop that starts at my office and meanders around the center of town. I walk past a hospital, a school, restaurants, a train station, the local AA building, and more office buildings than I could count. But it’s the people who give me pause and who,…
Just Write
“Just write.” Every time I hear those words, I think of Lady Gaga and “Just Dance”. It happens, every so often, that I sit at my computer and stare at a blank page. The words hover at the edge of my mind, but instead of typing I internally edit until my fingers tap on the…
Revision
I took this picture while I was running away. My ex husband and I had been living in the same house for three months after separation and it had become unbearable on many levels. I packed a bag and the kids, got into the car, and headed east since heading west would only result in…
Writing Short
In the past few months, I’ve had the opportunity to write three short stories. The thought terrified as much as it intrigued. I have no problem hitting word limits. Where my issue arises is that I tend to then exceed those limits. For me, once my first draft is complete, deleting more than a small handful…