AmiMaxine

Ancestors

One of the best things I’ve done is to follow Kathleen Foxx on Twitter. For many reasons – great resources, great advice, her podcast (Badass Writers) – but also her question of the day. 🙂 A lot of the questions are geared toward writing – questions about our main characters or setting, other pieces ofContinue reading “Ancestors”

A Story A Day: Month Eight

For this month, I chose stories from Missouri Review’s selected prose. As with the previous seven months, I have no idea what these stories are about – the goal is simply to experience new writing. Feel free to read along! “Way Back, Well Before My Divorce” by Adam Prince “Manifold Northeast Life & Trust” byContinue reading “A Story A Day: Month Eight”

Moments of Character

For the last few months, I’ve been rewatching some of my favorite detective procedurals as “research” for the mystery I am working on. (I use the air quotes around research because it’s also just because I enjoy them.) At the moment, I’m working my way through Bones, and I love the bits of character developmentContinue reading “Moments of Character”

Book Covers

I went down a rabbit hole recently. A Canva book cover design rabbit hole. I’ve decided that I want to self-publish my second manuscript (for a few reasons I’ll chat about in another post some time), and I was goofing around with covers. I played around with some of the templates, and then I wentContinue reading “Book Covers”

More Adventures in Homeownership

Sometimes, life throws a tree at you. With the help of a wicked storm, of course. Other times, life throws a second tree at you with the help of…seemingly nothing. Last week, Friday, I woke up and, without my glasses, noticed something in my backyard – something with lots of leaves that wasn’t there yesterday.Continue reading “More Adventures in Homeownership”

A New Word

There are many odd things that a writer can learn when working on a story. In most cases, the learning is probably intentional – research for something specific that occurs in or relates to their plot or characters or setting. In some instances, that odd thing is a word they’d never heard of before. Today,Continue reading “A New Word”

A Story a Day: Month Seven

For this month, I chose to focus on Creative Nonfiction stories. As with the previous six months, I have no idea what these stories are about – the goal is simply to experience new writing. Feel free to read along! “Writing Memoir and Writing for Therapy” by Tara DaPra “Tell It Even More Slant” byContinue reading “A Story a Day: Month Seven”

A Story a Day: Midway

Six months. 181 stories. 667,814 words. To be honest, I’m a little surprised that I’ve managed to keep going this long without missing a single day. (Full disclosure, I came close once – had gone to bed and was drifting to sleep when I remembered I hadn’t read it yet. I grabbed my phone toContinue reading “A Story a Day: Midway”

I’m Definitely on Some Lists

I recently sent an email to the police department in Madison, WI (USA). After I hit send, my first thought was…this is going to land me on a list. [strained smile] I sent a request to the South District Office in the hopes that they might allow for a tour of their facilities – asContinue reading “I’m Definitely on Some Lists”

“On today’s episode of Adventures in Homeownership…”

I’ve been a homeowner for a little under eight years. During that time, I’ve learned a lot about replacing sump pumps (and everything that goes with them). I’ve come downstairs and, half-asleep, stepped into a giant puddle in my kitchen and learned all about broken water lines leading to refrigerators. I’ve learned how to replaceContinue reading ““On today’s episode of Adventures in Homeownership…””