It’s about more than self-evolution; isn’t it? I told one of my friends that I was looking at a lot of stoicism blogs lately. She snorted, raised an eyebrow and watched as her dog sniffed a sexy bush near the old, brick electric building and said, “Well, that’s super bro of you.” “Wait. What? You mean Stoicism…

This podcast we’re going to talk about our town’s purple fire snowstorm about 170 years ago and other weird things that happened in 1853…

Carrie Jones Books

“My heart aches,” he says as if that will change her mind. He quotes Keats, memorizes it the way others memorize song lyrics, Drunk, but not on hemlock or an opiate. Drunk One minute and the next. Keats is not pretentious enough a poet to impress Someone who sings with…

This week someone on their news blog called me a human vacuum cleaner because I report on meetings rather exhaustively. And some very lovely humans sent me messages, outraged on my behalf. “That’s nasty,” they said. “How horrible!” And then they loaded me down with compliments. So, instead of feeling…

So, I’ve been writing poems every morning. I know! I know! “Poems,” say the anti-poem people. “Ick!” And I totally get that, I do. Just like not all people are into graphic novels or manatee erotica (making that one up), people aren’t all into poems. The only reason I’m telling…

Why motifs are cool in your novel Writing motifs are cool. They are one of those elements that elevate your novel from something crooning Celine Dion off-key on a karaoke stage to Ms. Dion herself. Seriously. They are a big deal. Here is what LitCharts says about them:

When a tall man entered the small airplane at the Bangor Airport, people got out of his way, curling out of the aisle, further into their seats. He was so big, so full of presence. He took up space. When the flight attendant said that the plane was over its…

Writing isn’t always easy. It isn’t always this beautiful, muse-induced utopia. Sometimes it’s grueling; it can make your nerves shatter. But the thing is that it’s not always THE WRITING that’s doing that. It’s you that’s doing that. Writing is hardest when you let other people’s doubts sink into your…