It’s so easy to be jealous. To let the green-eyed monster into your mental house, allow it to sit at the kitchen table in your cerebellum and tell you stories about how things could be so much better if your life was just like that person’s over there. And this is especially true if you’re a writer trying to make it in this often-cruel world. After all, things aren’t fair….
This week, we’re talking about writing inspiration. I tried to answer this question in a delightful prose-oriented blog entry, but kept on getting foiled by having way too much to talk about—because as a former journalist, everything pretty much spurs me to pick up a pen! So here is a short list of things that have inspired me over the years. Make one for yourself — you might find it…
My favorite place no longer exists. I don’t mean this on some deep, metaphysical level… I mean it literally was demolished and no longer exists. The place was the Kapalua Bay Hotel in Maui… and it was heaven. The first time I went there, my husband proposed to me. He wanted the experience to be perfect… sunset on the beach. Unfortunately, he had scheduled night after night of simple yet…
I’ve always been very independent. I need some time alone everyday to decompress (and write). I like to do things myself, and hate being told what to do. And then I married someone as independent as I am. He is equally as bossy and opinionated. He needs time alone in his studio everyday. But we’ve managed to muddle along. We know to give each other space, and we like to…
There are those few moments in life so huge that by passing through them, you become someone different. You become a new version of you. And no matter what you told yourself before the event, it wouldn’t matter. You’d probably still charge ahead and do it. Graduation. Marriage. Childbirth. Book deal. Buying a house. Moving. So one day you’re a college student, a single person, a struggling writer, a renter—and…
Our theme this week, in honor of Valentine’s Day, is “love hurts.” The thing is, (and shh!–don’t tell my fellow Debs)… I don’t think love hurts. Go ahead and call me Pollyanna if you must, but as I get older, I’ve learned to count my blessings and let the rest of it go. (Besides, if you must nickname me after a character in a Disney movie, just do what everybody…
Real Life & Liars isn’t a love story, but it’s a story about love. In all the writing advice books, they talk about having high stakes for your characters. In adventuresome books, an author can literally hang the fate of the free world in the balance, or at least the life of a beloved character or two. I like to read those books, but they’re not my kind of thing…
We’re very happy to have Malena Lott as our guest today. Malena is a wife, mother of three, and brand and marketing consultant from Oklahoma. Dating da Vinci is her second novel. Her first novel, The Stork Reality, was published in 2006. Malena invites you to join her on Facebook and Twitter, and to visit www.malenalott.com to read an excerpt, enter contests and read reviews. No bones about it. My…
