Things not to say to a writer:

1. What have you published?

2. Have I seen any of your work? (this is the same question as the first.)

3. Why do you write? You should do (something else), you do that so well.

4. I called you because I know you were home and don't work.

5. Have you got an agent? Publisher?

6. When will your book be published?

7. Haven't you finished writing your book yet?

Writers write because they have to. Publishing is the business of agents and editors. Writers write, publishers print books. Please let us enjoy our obsession. We know the odds of getting published.

My finished manuscript is in the hands of a friend I refer to as the Queen of Red Ink. Since she takes her duty seriously, stray commas will be dashed, new ones placed, word choices questioned and over used words banished. My beautiful novel will be bloodied.

Writing: I have several readers for my manuscripts. The first tell me if what they read is a novel or a near miss. The next get fussier. The last is the Queen of Red Ink. I take 95% of my readers' comments--I want people to understand and enjoy my book. I take 85% of the Queen's comments, claiming writing style differences.

Writers have to take criticism if they want their books read and if they want to write their best.

A storm, a friend's story, any unexpected event can trigger a glimpse into something more.

Word dust drifted streets of broken music car horns and air hammers--The Word broken pounded twisted exploded in smoke--
--William S. Burroughs "Nova Express"

writers

It's been snowing for days. I miss my Christmas trees.

Writers: They view the world from the inside out. While they move through the same world as everyone else, they are living an alternate internal life; experiencing the stories they imagine. Since they return to each scene over and over, writing and re-writing, is it a wonder that this life is so vivid for them?

"We are an impossibility in an impossible universe." Ray Bradbury

Somehow this quote makes doing the impossible like writing (and publishing) a novel seem like a possibility.

"Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it" Hannah Arendt

Four of my trees, all different colors, bagged and ready for the attic. I'll have to decorate them again next year once again.

Writing: Every novel is built sentence by sentence.

My query letter is too short, my synopsis is too long, and my newest novel is stalled. I fear my brain is either empty or too full.