Carrot Ranch

Ushering in the (Same Old) Winds of Change

With a new year comes ideas about starting fresh, giving us a new chance to achieve our goals. Usually this sense of a fresh start is, in reality, a false hope that we as humans attach to January 1. It’s a lot of pressure for a single date to be responsible for the world’s “fresh […]

Be Still My Beating Heart

Now this is a way to celebrate Hump Day! Charli Mills over at the Carrot Ranch tweeted about Unraveled, my newest collection of flash fiction and short stories. A spectacular collection of stories! A master of the flash fiction form! https://t.co/H48p221kwr — Charli Mills (@Charli_Mills) August 3, 2016 A “master,” eh? That made my heart skip […]

99 Words of Body-Shaming

This week I had the unfortunate luck to witness a truly horrible scene in a restaurant that I like to frequent when I am in write-a-million-words-a-month mode. Usually when I visit this restaurant, the servers (who all know me and know my caffeine of choice) show me to the same table (complete with an outlet) […]

No Place Like Home

I spent the weekend thinking about what home means to me, trying to prepare myself to write something for Charli Mills’ Carrot Ranch prompt this week. I brainstormed memories from all the homes I have lived in (and I’ve lived in a lot), trying to find a pattern or inspiration or…something. Now, I have more […]

Writing lessons from Shel Silverstein

On May 10, 1999, the world lost a gifted author, playwright, songwriter, and human being. Shel Silverstein published The Giving Tree more than 50 years ago, but the story seems even more relevant and poignant in today’s struggles with technology-induced isolation and ongoing climate change. How is that possible? How does an unforgettably tender story written in […]

Power, Power, Who’s Got the Power?

Two months. Yes, it’s been two months since I wrote a blog post. I am a horrible blog mama, eh? Actually, I am surprised that it’s been only two months because it feels like a lot longer. Part of the sabbatical was intentional. I wanted to step back, regroup, study my long-term plan, and make sure […]

If Mother Nature and Father Time went head to head…

I wasn’t planning on writing a blog post this week because, well, I am a horrible master of time. There, I said it. Time management and I do not mix. It’s taken me more decades than I care to admit to acknowledge it, but there it is. But I did want to make sure and […]

One Writer’s Identity Crisis

This past weekend was challenging for me as a writer. I headed up north for the short story contest, where the prompt was “pit bull in pink chiffon.” Such a great prompt, right? I was excited to write something cute and funny within the three-hour limit. *Sigh* Naturally my muse was feeling more of a sad […]

The Year My Characters Revolted During #NaNoWriMo

“Yes, I’m doing NaNoWriMo.” If you know any author personally, you’ve probably heard (or read) those words. National Novel Writing Month takes place every year, when hundreds of thousands of writers vow to write every day for a month, producing 50,000 words each by month’s end. Why? Because they can. Because writing can be a […]

Surviving the writing life

With the week of work I have had, I was worried that the final resting place I would be writing about for Charli Mill’s writing challenge this week would be my own. In the span of a week, I have edited one thesis and two academic books totaling just over 1,000 pages. I also had an […]