Gather 'round…
There it is. October 8th, 2016. A gem. Believe it or not, this post was the beginning of what would become a full feature-length memoir. What is still to become a full feature-length memoir. She's only a few pages away from a completed first draft, and only a few months away from a fully completed... Continue Reading →
Up next in the thrilling adventures of the Random Post Generator (Henceforth known as the RPG*), we find ourselves in the puling infancy of kjottinger.com. This time-trip takes us back to October 9, 2014, two weeks into the illustrious blogging career of M'self. Post Numero 5. Of. All. Time. Woah. You can visit young KJ... Continue Reading →
Nabs, in her favorite spot. In 2010, we took our first trip into the Boundary Waters with kids in tow. Two years prior, we ventured in for our honeymoon, and resolved to somehow figure a way to get all the kids into the wilderness with us. Spoiler Alert: Careful readers will note that the Annual... Continue Reading →
It took conjuring up all my best and greatest obsessive tendencies, bringing to bear the entire Google Photos arsenal, and employing a shameful willingness to ignore my family and all that I love most, but the old blog has gotten a new face. You might not see it so much from here on the individual... Continue Reading →
...Do not tell me you are a writer but have no time to write. I don’t have time for that (because I am writing)... Linda Lafferty on Finding Time to Write | WritersDigest.com. Ouch. Delivered to my inbox this afternoon was this article from Writer's Digest. Linda Lafferty is a busy woman. I daresay busier than... Continue Reading →
Eleven years ago, for reasons unbeknownst to me, I printed out an email. It didn't contain directions, or any other information that I needed to make portable. It wasn't a recipe that I wanted to add to my binder, or a receipt I needed to file (you know, back in the day that we filed... Continue Reading →
I just hit send, submitting my first opinion article to a local magazine. And I'm only sweating a tiny little bit. Who knows if it will ever see print, but I am pretty excited to have even tried, so I'll take that as a win. Thanks to you, dear blog readers, for your likes and... Continue Reading →
Why do we? Why do I? It seems to me that writing has to be a non-optional part of life for it to work. Something so integral to who you are that it might reside up there in the upper echelons with lasagna and chocolate. You know, just below faith and breathing and kidneys. I... Continue Reading →
Applied simply... conflict is little more than incident, anecdote or news. Made complex, active, climactic and complete, it becomes a plot. Developed in depth and with layers added, plot in turn enacts our human frailty and fears. It asserts the lasting strength of our dreams. Donald Maass, Writing the Breakout Novel
So, there's a little more to my Donald Maass epiphany... A while ago, just after I started learning a little bit about the publishing business, I ran into him. Not him, really. That would be worthy of, like, a whole post. With pictures. As it is, I met him through an interview I stumbled... Continue Reading →
Apparently I didn't give a satisfying enough description of the writing conference. I have been told it was a little lacking. Ahem. I could tell you who was there, and what wisdom they expertly imparted, but if you really wanted to know that, you probably already would have visited the website. You still can. Its... Continue Reading →
Yeah. That's pretty much all I can say. Weekend with Your Novel was amazing. Workshops, guest speakers, agents, critique groups. All crammed into 24 exhausting hours. Exhausting, and encouraging, and challenging, and humbling, and did I mention exhausting? I was in bed by 9 both nights. So much for making the most of my time. On... Continue Reading →
