Plans for 2024

Yesterday, I had my first acceptance of the year! https://pittstopblogcom.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/giphy-48.gif At the start of each new year, I do a post on the plans I have for that said year. Yes, I'm making plans; hopefully God doesn't laugh too hard. For 2023, I think it was my goal to rewrite one of my WIP’s, continue …

I Changed My Mind…Again

It’s a woman’s prerogative to change her mind. So, earlier this year I was doing a MAJOR overhaul/revision of my Poland/Holocaust WIP and midway through I became convinced it was *BAD*. I think I was overwhelmed by all of the work I was doing on it, all of the changes that would have to be …

A Room of One’s Own

I’m not a fan of Virginia Woolf… I’ve tried to pick up “Mrs. Dalloway” numerous times and couldn’t get into it. Maybe one of these days I’ll be able to read it and enjoy it. Sometimes it takes me a few tries to get into a piece of classic lit. Anyway, she wrote an essay …

Some New Writing Advice

If you read my Plans for 2023 post, I mentioned I was revising a novel of mine, with the intention of publishing it via Kindle sometime this year. I was going to shoot for March. Yeah, that’s totally not going to happen. I did some editing on it in December and thought I was heading …

The Write Stuff

I've scrolled through my past credits and I have noticed a handful of my published works are no longer available to read. Some of the magazines and companies went defunct. There are places out there that accept reprints and if I had the energy to resubmit my pieces, I would. But at present I'm too …

Ceased Publications

It happens: a publication that featured your work has gone under. These are hard economic times and new publications struggle to compete against older, well-known publications. Well, heck, even the older, well-known publications struggle to maintain readership, etc. This has happened a handful of times to me. Nothing makes me happier than to have a …

2020 in Review

2020 has been an interesting year, to say in the least. Our lives have been turned upside down by the pandemic, and our lives continue to be affected by it. Hopefully 2021 will be better. In this post I’m going to highlight my literary achievements of 2020. While this year has been difficult, for me …

Decisions, Decisions

November has been a busy month, with very few updates on this blog and little writing accomplished. Work has distracted me from writing, but I hope in December or in January to remedy that. Writing is my first love, my passion. I have made three decisions in regards to my WIPs. The first, regarding my …

Why Speculative Fiction

Lately, I’ve tried to write a new, speculative story and have failed. Three different attempts, really, and all of them were duds. It happens. You unconsciously try to mimic what you’ve done before because it was successful, and you realize what you create is too repetitive. It took me three duds to remember why I …

The Method to My Madness

Over a year ago, I wrote a post entitled, “Pantser vrs. Planner,” in which I discussed writers who are pantsers and writers who are planners. “Pantsers” are those who write by “the seat of their pants.” They may have a general idea of where they want their story to go, but they don’t outline. They …