“Do you like your name?” That was the question I asked at the end of my last post. Then I asked what name would they have rather been called if they didn’t like their name. One reader, Sharon, turned the question back on me. I have named hundreds of characters in the over forty books I’ve written. Each book has …
Characters Need Names
“Letitia! What a name. Halfway between a salad and a sneeze.” ― Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight “Jason scratched his head. “You named him Festus? You know that in Latin, ‘festus’ means ‘happy’? You want us to ride off to save the world on Happy the Dragon?” ― Rick Riordan, The Lost Hero I taught some writing classes at the Kentucky Christian Writers Conference …
My Open Journal Posts – 2,000 and Counting
This is a favorite keyboard. I used it for years. I wore away many of the letters from the keys. It has dents in the bottom row made by my fingernails. My thumb rubbed away a section of the hard plastic space bar. I surely have a space bar callous on that thumb. This hasn’t been my only keyboard. I’ve …
I Keep On Writing – Writing Journey #16
“You never climb the same mountain twice, not even in memory. Memory rebuilds the mountain, changes the weather, retells the jokes, remakes all the moves.” – Lito Tejada-Flores No, I’ve never had the urge to climb mountains. I like to hike up trails into the hills, but I’ll leave the actual mountain climbing to others. But when I saw this …
Writing Journey 5 – Outline Assignment Inspiration
Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on. ― Louis L’Amour Last post I shared my first sale. It wasn’t exactly the first thing I had gotten for writing. When I was in sixth grade I wrote an essay about wanting to raise chickens and won 100 chicks. When I was in 8th grade …
Writing Journey 4 – My First Writing Sale
If you’ve been reading about my writing beginnings and subsequent journey, you know that I had the writing dream as a preteen and that I just kept on dreaming through my teen years and even after I got married and had two babies. If you missed the earlier posts, the links are at the bottom of this post. In …
Writing Journey 3 – The Next Step in My Writing Journey
“Long patience and application saturated with your heart’s blood—you will either write or you will not—and the only way to find out whether you will or not is to try.” —Jim Tully, Writer’s Digest I’m not sure if you all are ready to keep following me down my writing road, but in case a few of you are still interested, …
Writing Journey 2 – A Teenage Wannabe Writer
I only write in blue ink. ~Kat Graham Writing is such a personal joy when you are young and are dreaming of what might be. You might even be able to believe that yes, this, whatever dream you are keeping a tight grasp on, will be. That’s sort of where I was through my early teens after I had outgrown the mystery …
Celebration Times Two
“If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.” —Henry Ford I like Henry Ford’s quote. We are beat before we start if we think we can’t do something. But if we are the Little Engine that Could and keep saying “I think I can,” then we have a better chance of …
The Rocking Chair of Worry
You’re only here for a short visit. Don’t hurry, don’t worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way. ~Walter Hagen Have you ever worried about something until you were nearly sick? The Bible warns us that worrying is useless and shows lack of faith. As true as that is, I also know that most all of us …










