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nanowrimo

So long, Nanowrimo

I go away for a couple of weeks to volunteer at Dragon Con, returning to yet another disappointment. I’ve participated in National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo) since 2003. Twenty years, y’all. And here’s where I hang up my hat and say I won’t be participating any longer, thanks to their stance on using AI. Listen, y’all – I work with AI, and have for years for the day job. I understand its uses and limitations

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Nanowrimo 2023 Writer badge
writing

Na-Na-Nanowrimo Time

The first day of November has always been a world of extremes for me regarding writing, thanks to National Novel Writing Month, lovingly referred to as NaNoWriMo. I’ve been participating since 2003, with a solid 50/50 wins under my belt. I haven’t written about Nanowrimo much here lately, so for my 20th Nanowrimo, it was time. Why Nanowrimo? Why do I do this? In part, to prove to myself that I can, but from another

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writing

Trying not to Jinx Everything

Y’all – remember when we went outside without worrying about, ya know, the whole global pandemic? Back then, I was full of hope that 2020 was going to be the time that I finally got my head together and published Through the Lens. Yeah, about that… I worked solidly through my edits, and I started pushing toward the light at the end of the tunnel. Then, Ahmaud Arbery was murdered. The pandemic got worse. Then

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personal

2020 Thoughts

So here we are, sitting on the cusp of 2020. Or, should I say, here I sit, drinking coffee, trying to wrap my head around the last year, let alone the last decade.

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flash fiction

Some Days – a Vignette

I came across a quote, “Love is friendship set on fire” somewhere out in the world, and tonight it just brought this scene to mind. While just a bit of flash fiction, I think I might have to come back to this character, as she seems to have much more to say.   Some days I can forget you. Some days I can forget the fact that from the moment I saw you I knew

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personal

Checking In

So many things going on lately – I just realized that I hadn’t posted any updates for #write365. I’ve been going back through and revising piecemeal on the Romantic Suspense, but it’s been quite minimal. Still better than the alternative, right? Work has been… well, work. I did start a Google Drive to throw the random prompts that I come across into… while I’ve got my long-form Nanowrimo idea doc already, most of those aren’t

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personal

The Parting Glass

I lost a friend today. CindieLee Hendon, who saw me through some of my extreme lows and highs as I left teen years and headed into adulthood, died today. I’m still trying to wrap my head around that. So close to the first anniversary of my mother’s death, I just don’t think a part of me will allow for me to start processing this just yet. Instead, it swirls memories of watching her son Morgan

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write365

Day Two – Do Estimates Count as Writing?

Things have been crazy today – We started with a heavy snow layer that sat upon the ice that had come in yesterday, then seeing those elusive blue skies and bright sunshine to start the thawing out process. We’re finishing out the day here in Atlanta going back below freezing just so we can wake up to not-great roads for another day. Meanwhile, I was working. I wish I could say that I knocked out

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personal

Two Fourteen p.m.

I may not always remember all of the details of today. Most days, I hope that I don’t. At 2:14pm ET on February 6, 2013, my mother died. I’ve been sitting, staring at that last sentence for over an hour. What else is there to say? A year ago my mother died. The rational part of my brain knows that this is just part of the cycle, but that doesn’t make anything better. We were

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personal

Three Months

When the new year came around, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up and promising to write here every week this year. Then I lost my job. Then I lost my mother. It’s been three months today since myself, my stepfather, my grandmother and all of her siblings gathered around her hospital bed as she breathed her last. Three months since I really, honestly could say that

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