Imagine if Margaret Mitchell had named her famous character “Eugene Butler”. Again, we, as readers, would not have been privy to the author’s thought process nor to the fact that “Rhett” was even a possible moniker. We would have forever known the handsome, devilish rogue as “Eugene” but, frankly, we are all silently thanking Miss Mitchell for ultimately choosing Rhett as his name.
As I sat on my couch one day, I began thinking… Why? Why do we exist? Why were we created? Why does the universe expand? Why do we not know what God looks like? As I pondered upon what the answers could be I saw a TV commercial, and as it played out I knew what I had to do – I had to tell the world this story.
A challenge for new writers is that in this social media age, too much writing advice is available. Twitter in particular teems with authors on a spectrum of experience tweeting advice, it seems to me, meant mostly to draw attention to their books. Such guidance is usually trite, offers little real assistance to writers and ironically sells few books.
We’ve all been there. English class 101 where the teacher drones on and on about “i” before ‘e” except after ‘c”. Where the spelling lesson has now become redundant thanks to spell check. Where the difference between a noun and pronoun has you scratching your head. Where you are asked to take everything you’ve learned thus far, given a general story line and are asked to write a short story.
Would God floss? Do spiders sing? Can you see the Universe in your reflection? Find the answers to these questions and more in this new book by Connecticut writer Jen Payne. Her poems in EVIDENCE OF FLOSSING: WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND investigate the human condition and its folly, the beauty of our natural world, and the possibility of divine connection.
Burtrum Lee Conner, born into a world of scientific mystery, discovers that the life she’s been leading for the past forty years, is the wrong one. Her parent’s Jed and Jane Conner, stealing her as an infant, brought Lee up as their own.
I was trapped as surely as those Russian dissidents I had recently learned about. The totalitarian government informed them that if they tried to escape not only would they be captured and killed, their families and loved ones would also be punished. If you loved your family, it was virtually impossible to wiggle free under those terms.
Peter Tesla, a prodigious young inventor, develops an electronic device to enhance the user’s free will. A major application is drug detoxification. Peter’s star client is the U.S. president. Along the way, Peter is tried for the mysterious death of a girlfriend and struggles with the schemes of a secretive industrialist.
After David Summers enlists with the Confederate cavalry, his delusion of chivalry is soon crushed when he witnesses the horrors of battle. Shot by a Union picket, he winds up at a stranger’s farm. Four girls compassionately nurse him back to health.
I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) the year I turned the big 4 0 and the ferocity of the disease totally floored me. My MS diagnosis was the beginning of a process which led to new priorities and a more creative lifestyle.
