I’m not Jack Handy. I have no interest in being Jack Handy. First of all, his name sounds really dirty to me for some reason; and secondly, if I had to be someone named Jack, I would be Jack Shepard.
Oh, what a tangled web we weave…. Lying. The heart of any great writer’s skill. Or “persuasion,” if you want to paint a slightly sexier face on it. (But let’s be honest, that flawless contouring trick you learned on YouTube isn’t fooling anyone, Karen.) We learn when we’re young that lying is wrong, even as the ones […]
What do they always say, when you’re climbing high? “Don’t look down.” Why do they say it? Does it really matter? Does it make a difference where you’re looking, as long as you keep moving, keep climbing in the right direction? And what will happen if you ignore the warning, and look down? Will you […]
F bomb alert. Sorry to those who are sensitive. That said, it’s TOTALLY worth it. – V
Soul searching, Cannot find map. Legs have gotten tired, Eyes burning with unshed, Unwanted tears. How long was this road an hour ago? A year ago? Ten years ago? Am I really lost, Or am I reluctant? Am I tired, Or am I depressed? Am I wandering, Or am I listless? What […]
I had a friend in high school who used to live by the phrase, “Nothing good ever happens in August.” I really do mean that, literally. For one month during the summer, every single year, if you called her up and asked her to hang out…go to the movies…go camping, whatever, she would simply respond […]
This is a Faceboook post I made the other day, because I’m honestly just bored with real life. (And I wonder why my FB friends think I’m a weirdo.) So… here you go. Enjoy! Here lies Dodgy Grenadian Skillet, the bane of my island existence. I inherited you from a long line of haggard SGU students who […]
Note: this entry was originally posted on 2/17/2010. I’ve resurrected it here for convenience and because it is hella pertinent to my current situation. And probably, several of yours. Like every unpublished young writer, I yearn for the day when my name is not familiar to a mere handful of people, but uttered with reverence […]
I remember when gas was less than a dollar. When publishing a short story meant that you waited weeks until the spiral-bound copy came in the mail. When Superman was never seen in public sans red panties. When it wasn’t considered “cool” to love comic books if you were a girl, or play video games. […]
Not this kind… But this kind. (If you’ve been living under a rock for the past week, here’s what I’m talking about. Go ahead and catch up. I’ll wait.) If you’re too impatient/lazy to click on the link (no judgement here, just sayin), here’s the gist: a lot of people are upset because [popular book-based […]
Today’s TC post comes in the form of a story board. (Of “borrowed” GIFs) Disclaimer: I don’t own any of these pictures and I make zero money from this site, yada yada blah blah please don’t sue me. Once upon a time, someone told a young girl “Write what you know.” But at that point […]
I was inspired to write this by a comment on the last post, wherein Jaye Robin Brown mentioned “second half of life intentions.” I’d been meaning to blog about this for a while, but well…in an ironic twist of irony, I kept putting it off. (Author’s note: sometimes when blogging, I am intentionally redundant. Just go with […]
I hate the term “writer’s block.” Not because it isn’t apt, but because I feel like it singles out writers and seems to suggest that we–unlike others who toil in a creative vocation–are the sole owners of this metaphorical brain boulder. Like Sisyphus (apparently), we writers are forever doomed to push this gigantic block before […]
When I was eleven years old, my one goal in life was to achieve the holy grail of pre-teen girl existence: the BFF. (Or, as my favorite book series at the time called it, a “Bosom Friend.”) A little less than a year later, I met my dear friend Colee at summer camp, and we’ve stayed in touch–in spite of the […]
Today is a day of mixed emotions. Lately, I’ve been really optimistic about this whole publishing process, happily and busily working away at my next WIP while waiting for good things to happen. And I believe they will, because sometimes life IS awesome. Sometimes, just like when you’re working on a manuscript, there are moments […]
When I was just a wee lass, I fell in love with mysteries. Before I hit my 8th birthday, I’d already blazed through the entire Nancy Drew Series. I scoured my school library for Caroline Cooney books, especially the ones that were a little bit “too scary” for a kid my age, then finally drew the […]
Almost six weeks into the querying process for my first novel, and suddenly I realize: I’m going about this all wrong. I’ve been looking at this whole thing like it’s dating–which, in my defense, there are a TON of parallels between the publishing process and trying to find “the one”–but it’s really a lot more […]
It’s only nine in the morning, There’s no cause to despair. It’s only nine on Monday, Just five more days to bear. I’ll probably skip through the day Like a fish through the paws of a bear. At least it’s not ten in the morning; It can only get worse from there.
Every aspiring author has a few nights of weakness. Nights where they lie awake, questioning whether they have the sanity or the willpower to continue in their chosen career. (And if you don’t have this problem, I’d really like to meet you. So I can punch you in the face. No offense.) For most of us, the mental hamster […]
I’ve always thought the expression “take it like a man” was a hilarious one. Not because I’m super feminist or anything (though, to be fair, I did start a club in college called Manhaters Anonymous…about a year before I broke down and married one of them), or because men (at least the ones I know) are usually big […]
I know this is going to sound a little stupid and formulaic, and it probably is. But when I first began this whole process of shopping myself out (or, as Elle Lothlorien would say, pimping myself out) in the hopes of achieving representation of the literary kind, it felt a lot like when I was in […]
If I post something and no one comments on it… was I ever really here? Food for thought.
You only get to claim a fresh start a few times in your life. There’s the very first day of school, when no one knows you at all…when you haven’t yet made a single new friend, turned in a single homework assignment or pissed off a single teacher. Then there’s the day you go off […]
A moment of doubt, A brief inhalation; Words become superfluous And instinct rules Time lengthens, Fills all waking memory; The last moment before Is the edge of the first. Feelings rain, The reign of thoughts cease And you’re almost there. Suprising, yet gentle In complete overtaking; Atoms explode, As two bodies collide.
Okay, so your plane wrecks on a freaky island with bizarre animal life and a wierd time traveling wheel thingie in the middle. Those things have nothing to do with this story though, so you ignore them. You don’t have any tools or food, so you’re probably gonna die pretty soon. You’re completely alone, and […]
VP Anderson 
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