Building Worlds: Topics a Writer Needs to Consider

This post was inspired by Ellen Brock’s “How to Write a Believable World” YouTube video. I have always been interested in world-building. No matter whether I write poems, stories, novels or memoir, I want a stage set for readers to see and enter. Perhaps this idea came from my elementary school where we put on…

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Triggering a Map of the Imagination

“I’ll draw another mental map and build a city entirely with ice-covered pink stones…” On February 3, I wrote a blog post for the San Diego Book Review, entitled “Triggering a Map of the Imagination.” Check out the excerpt below and let me know what you think! I ride in the cozy car world of dashboard…

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Life in Other Worlds

“My first attempt at novel writing began in a ridiculous way…” On December 20, I wrote a blog post for the San Diego Book Review, entitled “Life in Other Worlds.” Check out the excerpt below and let me know what you think! A fiction writer joins the world they create. Occasionally a friend has suggested…

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Names: Clues to Character

Names are important. In my novel, Shelter of Leaves, names carry meaning. The first paragraph below is an excerpt from the deleted prologue. Beside her swimming pool, Elaine closed her eyes against the sun. She imagined a drifting boat flanked by trees; crimson, marigold and burnt sienna leaves spun to the ground. Brilliant leaves signaled…

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Intentional Orphans

Writers often create from childhood experience. Deep, vivid memories, often recalled again and again as we age. They serve as an underlay and comparison to our current lives. My first post called “An Orphan Story” is a first grade memory. In third grade our teacher read the class The Boxcar Children and the fictional world…

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