When you say yes to a possibility you get to grow, you get to move beyond the labels that define you

There’s a great improv maxim, just say yes, which is really about when you’re on stage with another improv player, you don’t want to say no to all their ideas because then your scene sucks and nothing happens.

If you keep saying no, nothing happens.

It’s pretty basic, right?

Writing and life are like that, too.

I’ve done some absolutely weird things in my life-things that you would never imagine me doing because they aren’t very ‘me’ things. I’ve been a volunteer firefighter, done stats for…

Eight Sexy Ways to Write Sexy was Featured on Our Podcast Recently. The actual episode link is here but here are some of the notes.

Carrie’s been editing a lot of erotica lately and despite her uptight New England ways, we thought it was time to give you all a few hints about writing sex scenes.

Gasp!

I know! I know! Here we go…

Hint #1

It needs to make sense.

We’ve all seen really un-sexy writing, right? …

It’s Veterans Day and I’d like to thank my dad and Em, and all my current friends and relatives who have served or are serving.

I’ve pasted in a piece I wrote back in May or June a few years ago about soldiers from Otis, Maine. Some of you may have already read it. So no worries. It just seemed like the right day to post it again and the right day for me to remember.

When I wrote this, I never imagined that my daughter would graduate Harvard and enlist becoming a field artillery officer, but she did. …

A few years ago, I was a newspaper editor, working out at the local gym, when my phone went off.

Before COVID-19, the school system my daughter went to had a dress-up costume day.

This is what happened one time.

I’m sharing it again because:

1. It’s important to remember.
2. I was a reporter and editor then and it’s important to remember that despite everyone’s hate and rantings, reporters are people to and a part of your community.
3. Love is important.
4. Em (my daughter) is wise.
5. Community is important too, and that’s a good thing to remember right now in these scary-weird times.
6. We’ve got to…

Ruth Bader Ginsberg died last week and our timelines lit up with people mourning her death and some people exulting in it.

Politics are often polarizing, but grief is often communal with people experiencing different amounts and aspects of it, but shared grief can be such a powerful thing.

Kindness matters. Even to the dead. Action and beliefs matter. Especially to the still living.

No matter what you think of her court decisions, which were meant to heal the ‘fractures in federal law,’ Ginsberg has some very good advice about marriage and words, which is why we’re talking about her…

I found out yesterday that my aunt Maxine died at the end of August. This is typical for my family where I tend to be the one who never knows anything important until weeks or months after everyone else. That’s okay. It is what it is.

Sometimes you have too much squash.

It’s like when you’re writing a book and you have too much of one element? Like there are forty-two pages of dialogue, just straight dialogue. Or maybe fifty-eight pages of description, and that description is all about a paper towel on your desk that’s been there since July to catch the condensation from your glasses.

So what do you do when that happens?

You mix it up and things and make something new. Balance is key. Or something… right? That’s what all the influencer gurus say at least.

Poppy Seed Lemon Summer Squash Bread…