​Beta reading takes up much of my time lately. It’s a wonderful gift, being trusted to read someone else’s work and give them feedback to help shape it. Like all feedback, they don’t have to accept the suggestions, but the opportunity is there to do my best to help them. 

​We have so many colloquialisms in our everyday language it can be hard to weed them out when writing. But those phrases or words can rip the reader right out of the narrative, especially if you’re dealing in fantasy worlds, and no writer wants that. 

​If I was a computer genius as well as a writer, I would devise a search engine where you can input criteria to search for books that are similar. That way, if I just read young adult fantasy book about dwarves with strong friendships and a killer female main character, I could search for other titles with similar attributes. 

​There are a few tips on a variety of subjects running through my head. In case one of them might help someone else, I thought I would share them. 

​I thought I’d share one of the few pieces of flash fiction I’ve written. Enjoy!

         ​“Wasn’t this a law firm?”

​It’s funny looking at my last post. That was all true up until one of my kids developed a mild case of insomnia at the same time my work in progress hit a critical juncture that required a great deal of mental muscle to traverse. Funny how life goes sometimes. 

My muse has been practicing social distancing. It’s putting quite a dent in getting my writing done. To be fair to her, much of my normal writing time has been devoted to figuring out how to be a school teacher – a necessary endeavor which has taken far more energy than I anticipated.
​
But I think I’ve found a way to win my muse back and communicate with her in our new normal.

With writing, reading is part of building your craft. You read to stay current with publishing trends, to expand your knowledge of world building, grammar, sentence construction, vocabulary, the list goes on and on. As an author I love books, and I read a lot.
​
So, I’m terribly embarrassed when I find an established author whose work is amazing and somehow have never read—even though two of her books have been sitting on my bookshelf for the last year. 

Everyone is coping differently with the state of the world at the moment. The only advice I have, is to be gentle with yourself. For me, as I’m a goal-oriented person, setting small goals helps. I have to make them reasonable though. My favorite is brushing my teeth. That’s one, no matter how I’m feeling or what’s happening, I know I’ll get done at some point in the day.
​
I, like many others, am exploring the dimension of the interior of my home. While on my computer, I’m beginning to discover links worth investigating. 

​This week has been all about resume building for me. Working on short stories, submitting poems, and perfecting my tiling skills while cursing at inanimate objects.