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Different Is Good

Rogue Sunflower in FieldSome of us don’t particularly enjoy being noticed. We’d rather fit in. I just spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to find an outfit that would look acceptable for a business lunch in New York, and though I’m pleased with what I ordered, the process reminded me I don’t care to stand out for my clothes, either by looking too shoddy or too flashy. I don’t normally like standing out at all, in person. Fitting in is a gentle form of invisibility.

On the other hand, I wouldn’t get… Continue reading

Lucky Pumpkin

Girl in black with cat, pumpkin, and glowing moonDuring a lovely visit with family this weekend, I had a chance to draw with my granddaughter. Usually she does her own artwork, but this time she dictated what I should draw for her, and then she added the pumpkin lines. Sweet, no? I love a gentle, bit-by-bit collaboration.

Weekends make me feel lucky. Time with family does, too. Writing has its challenges, but it usually allows me a healthy balance of work and life. When I dream, drive, chat with people I care about, take walks, do puzzles, and… Continue reading

Milestones and Priorities

green hillside with cloudsI just finished a milestone revision of my latest novel, and it feels amazing. To stretch my limbs and mark the moment, I took a walk up a sunny hill and honestly, I feel so good. Revising line-by-line is my absolute favorite part of the writing process, and when I get the words right, the ideas sing in my mind.

I’m also fried. Ha! And my to-do list is long.

I’m so thankful for this work and the people who support me. Yes, the world is wild and terrifying right… Continue reading

Living With the Difficulty of a Novel

Measuring progress can be tricky, especially for a writer who doesn’t have pages adding up, let alone when a writer is deleting them. Over the past month, I’ve hardly written any words in the main document of my novel. I’ve detoured instead into research, character studies, and questioning the shape of the entire project.

For a while, I was worried enough that I searched for the basics of novel writing and rediscovered the stuff about honing a one-sentence concept, building on that for an outline, expanding next to chapter paragraphs,… Continue reading

Shell Time

sea shellsBeaches lend themselves to pondering eternity, and often, in Januarys, I’ve visited Florida and contemplated the past and the future. If you ask me, the continuum of time is fleeting, almost immaterial. We can see ahead and behind in the families playing at the edge of the waves, the generations spelled out for us when a toddler tests the wet sand with his toes while grasping his grandmother’s hand. The two are interchangeable, in a way, different spokes on the same spinning wheel.

Now that I’m home, I’m back on… Continue reading

Iterations of a Writer

At the top of my Journal document, where I’ll see it every morning, is a blue message that reads:

The only failing is not trying at all. That’s the loss, the mistake, the cowardice. Be brave, Caragh. Be brave. Face this book you started. It was a good start. You wanted to finish a draft by the end of this year, so do it. Get on it. Go slowly if you must, but go. The rest can all wait, all of it, until later.

It’s a message from my past… Continue reading

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