Story Land Jamboree

 Hello to members of my Tribe!  It's been a long, long time and a lot has happened. Like all good friends, I would like to pick up where we left off.  I have published more than The Gifted now ... "The Gifted: Adversaries & Healers" turned into a trilogy. I have published short stories and been part of some great collections and have another trilogy started with "The Witch of Hadler's Woods."  If you want to know what I have been up to, then feel free to follow my Amazon Author's Page:  https://www.amazon.com/L-A-Story/e/B00VBWVG1S or my Facebook Author's Page:  https://www.facebook.com/lastorythewriter . Why am I coming back here to the Story Land Jamboree after all this time? Well ... because it seemed to be a good place to talk shop, to share funny stories about things that happen in my life, and to share my thoughts about ... well, everything.  I hope you are as happy to see me back as I am to see you all here.  I have missed you.  Let's

Good afternoon, Members of The Tribe,  I hope you all enjoyed your Valentine's day. I enjoyed mine -- I really enjoyed walking around at work and randomly yelling, "Happy V.D., everyone!"   There were some laughs ... and some grimaces ... Hey, not everyone has a sense of humor.   My husband, who is a wonderful poet, wrote me a poem for Valentine's Day and I made a special dinner. We topped it off by watching the RUSH documentary, "Beyond the Lighted Stage." It was actually a really happy, fun little evening.  You all know I may babble about my personal life, but sooner or later, I'm going to come around and talk about something to do with creativity.  I think it is through these our art -  our creativity - that we connect with others in the human experience and we also learn about ourselves. Well, we will learn if we are Tribal, that is. (**See previous blogs to know what I mean by being "Tribal.") Do you know when I started becomin

Hello to all fellow members of the Tribe,  I hope you all made it through another week with the daily grind and still managed to eek out some creative moments to nourish your souls.  As you all are well aware ... (or all five of you that read this blog -ha!) this blog has evolved into a weekly discussion about my creative meanderings. It is my hope that you all can relate ... that you'll see my struggles and humor and know exactly what I am talking about.  I have heard so many writers refer to the ideas that come to them as "voices" in their heads. I can really relate to that. I have always thought of it that way, too.  Here's how the process works for me: It starts with a vision - usually just a scene.  For instance, In my fantasy short story, "Viridis," I had an image of this magical place where the gods reside. A place where humans couldn't view it except through special glasses because our fragile minds could not handle what we were really

Good afternoon to all the Tribal people out there,  This week, I had a conversation with an artist - and fellow Tribe member -- Dylan. He and I were riding in his car and got to talking about the ebb and flow of our creative lives. Right now, he said the issues in his personal life had led to a short attention span and he cannot seem to make himself complete any work of significant size.  I understand his frustration.  For a while, after the end of the longest relationship of my life, there was a period of several years when surviving -- being a single mom, working 2 to 3 jobs, and full time college student -- was all I could focus on. Previous to that, I had been quite prolific -- having published a poetry book and several short stories. The ideas and the characters buzzing around in my head were things I took for granted. I didn't realize they were blessings. Gifts.  Somehow, in the course of survival mode, I was drained of all else that I was. There was simply nothing el

Hello, and greetings to all members of The Tribe.  I hope all of you wonderful creative folks know that I did NOT forget you this past week. I'm a few days late on writing a new blog post because I have been down, man ... really down.  Why? Well, thanks for asking. I will tell you. It's embarrassing and immature, but it's the truth and if I am ever to relate to any of you ... I have to tell the truth.  I allowed an editor to critique my work. There. I said it. Oh, the horror!!! Here's the deal with critiques ... as writers, we all need them. If you are going to be a writer, you MUST get feedback from someone - preferably a copy editor and/or another experienced writer -- to help catch typos and grammar errors, locate possible plot issues, etc.  The problem with most of us is that we're so excited to have completed something that we just want to get it "out there" where we can share it. However, most first drafts are complete crap! Actually, secon

Good evening and Happy New Year to all members of The Tribe! Lots of interesting things are happening around my place lately. My husband, Keith, who is a poet, recently got introduced to Twitter. I have had an account for quite some time. To say he is enjoying it is an understatement! It began as a way to promote his upcoming third book of poetry -- "Lifelong Road." (He's good, ya'll. Once it's released, you will definitely want to check it out.)   He set up the Twitter account to promote his book -- the same reason I set up mine. However, he found that he has enjoyed networking with other poets, writers, and music artists. My husband LOVES music (as I do -- it's one of the many things we have in common) and he enjoys finding new prog rock bands to check out.  Allow me a moment to step away from my main point as I have to state what should be obvious to all Tribal folks out there. The obvious is the the fact that everything is changing. Indie bands/musi