“Out of clutter find simplicity. From discord find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity” –Albert Einstein Every so often, the need to simplify, downsize, and clarify, grabs hold of me and I become a whirling dervish of activity: selling tableware, giving away books, tossing files from filing cabinets, bundling up old clothes to… Continue reading Writing Life: Spring Cleaning My Tech
Author: Shelley Burbank
Short Story: Something Sparkly in a Little Velvet Box
Just for you, my dear readers, a Valentine’s Day short story with a happy ending. XOXO, Shelley SOMETHING SPARKLY IN A LITTLE VELVET BOX ******** “I have bad news.” Henley’s voice faded in and out, the cell service in that part of Florida spotty. I pressed the phone against my ear. “What did you say?”… Continue reading Short Story: Something Sparkly in a Little Velvet Box
Book Review: ABSENCE OF GRACE by Kevin St. Jarre
I had the honor of reading an advance copy of Kevin St. Jarre’s soon-to-be-released novel, Absence of Grace and wrote this review in hopes that other readers will find it useful. If you like fast-paced adventure stories with horror, supernatural, metaphysical, and/or religious elements, you’ll enjoy this one for sure. ABSENCE OF GRACE by Kevin… Continue reading Book Review: ABSENCE OF GRACE by Kevin St. Jarre
Author Q & A: Nancy Gardner
Nancy Gardner, whose new novel, DREAM STALKER just came out in both ebook and paperback, likes to garnish her mystery stories with a paranormal twist. DREAM STALKER is the first in a series of three books the New England author has planned. It tells the story of Lily Scott, a modern-day Salem witch who is… Continue reading Author Q & A: Nancy Gardner
Author Q & A: Nicole Gabor
An Interview with Former NYC Runway Model and YA Author, Nicole Gabor “I think it all started with a feeling of what I wanted to say,” Nicole Gabor types as we begin our online chat interview. Although it would have been fun to dress up and meet in person somewhere in New York City–at a… Continue reading Author Q & A: Nicole Gabor
Writing Life: Cozy Butterfly Project
[UPDATED March 2022] So, awhile back I had the idea of starting a comfort shawl project that would allow myself and others to encourage women engaged in the hard work of transforming themselves and their lives. A couple years ago, as an enthusiastic but scattered knitter with basic to intermediate skills, I’d been drawn to… Continue reading Writing Life: Cozy Butterfly Project
Guest Post: Quivering with Life, or Making a Fatal Blunder?
I have just spent what turned out to be my entire morning (after my requisite cup of coffee), at the water’s edge on an Adirondack chair with my feet in the lake. As an outsider looking in, it seemed as if there was peace and serenity all around me.
Writing Life: 3 Cool Ways to Work Around Procrastination
Procrastination. As a writer, I’ve built elaborate scaffolds of procrastination, making work that is really an avoidance of the work of novel-writing. I’ve built a website. I started a blog. I created a new Facebook account. I began writing female-empowerment flash fictions to post on Facebook. I made an Instagram account. I took photos of… Continue reading Writing Life: 3 Cool Ways to Work Around Procrastination
Writing Life: Simplicity, Luxury, Refinement
This morning, I grabbed my usual cup of coffee and my current read, and headed out to the balcony. This is how I start my days, with coffee and books and music. Today I cued up a playlist of opera arias and visited the English countryside with Wilkie Collins’s mystery novel, The Woman In White. … Continue reading Writing Life: Simplicity, Luxury, Refinement
Writing Life: Success: What is it Good For?
I’ve been thinking about success a lot these days–what it means, what happens if you fail, what happens if you don’t fail. Is the journey really the point, or are we just making ourselves feel better about our failures when we invoke the journey? Is it better to aim high and land somewhere south of… Continue reading Writing Life: Success: What is it Good For?