Traits on parade: Why I can't stop watching 24 hours of "Happy"

When I first heard about Pharrell Williams's 24-hour long video of his hit song "Happy" I thought it sounded like a unique, new form of torture. This went way beyond earworms. Boy...

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Refined by fire

While doing a filing cabinet purge, I came across a year-in-review letter from one of the most difficult years of my adult life, 1993. I was a young, post-college girl in my first...

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Insta-aww and still more creative first meets (avoiding insta-love 3)

In my previous posts in this mini-series, I discussed why insta-love is an ineffective way to build a romance plot, and suggested some alternate first-meet reactions other than...

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Insta-ugh and other creative first-meets (avoiding insta-love 2)

Photo credit: jpkwitter from morguefile.com First impressions can be powerful, but having a character go from never-seen-you-before stranger to die-for-you,...

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Anxiety of Influence

As a writer, should you be especially careful about what you read? It's a question that's been plaguing me recently, as my reading binge continues (thanks to a respiratory infection...

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Avoiding insta-love part 1

During my blogging hiatus, I went on a big reading binge, gobbling up six books in under three weeks. I largely was catching up on recommendations and newer books by favorite...

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Back in the saddle

Photo credit: cesstrelle from morguefile.com Reflecting on the state of blogging over the past year, I've seen an unprecedented number of blogging friends abandon...

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Herrings That Don't Stink: with Hart Johnson

Thank you, Laurel, for hosting me!  I tend to be a bit of a goofball, so it may have escaped those of you who know me that I know some stuff. Writing mysteries has some...

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