“Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it – whole-heartedly – and delete it before sending your manuscripts to press. Murder your darlings.” ― Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch When I met with our WOK (Writers of Kern) critique group leaders last month to hammer out the details of our upcoming meeting on critique groups, I shared a story that I’d never told anyone else. It’s private. It’s about writing—my writing. I had a critique group experience that changed me, and I felt it was relevant …read more

One month, 26 posts. Sundays off for good behavior As a relief to some of you whose eyes have been overtaxed by my lengthy Chicken Soup for the Soul-ish posts lately, for the next 26 days I will be writing shorter blogs during the A-Z Blogging Challenge.  In order to organize my thoughts and, hopefully, stir the creative juices in a more pointed and efficient manner, I will be blogging with the theme of gratitude. For 26 days, we will blog using the letter of the alphabet for that day.  The …read more

As many of you know, besides being an editor, local feature writer, and generator of many Facebook status updates (#timewaster), I also write romance for Woman’s World magazine and even have my own historical novel brewing on one of my laptops.  When I tell people I write romance, their first (and quite involuntary) response is raised eyebrows (I wait for it).  I can almost read their thoughts instantly: OMG… Dana must have the best sex life EVER!  While that I will neither confirm nor deny, I will say that your …read more