Essays
-
Permission to Fail
When failure rears its ugly head, it hurts, but it’s also an opportunity for growth and change. National Novel Writing Month #NaNoWriMo took place in November. The goal, although self-imposed, was to write at least 50,000 words of a novel during the month. I started off strong, reached my daily word count, and generally kicked ass. Then I got stuck in the middle, so I skipped the middle for a while and worked on the after-the-middle part and rocked it. Then the final proof for Caroline’s Lighthouse came, which meant I spent several evenings and a whole vacation day proofing it. It was the most important free-time task I had…
-
My biggest fear
Fear. It can be crippling. It can also change as we age. What’s your biggest fear right now at this moment? Will you have the same answer tomorrow? Abandonment When I was little, my biggest fear was abandonment. After my father passed away, my mother remarried the man who would end up raising me and shaping my life in ways I didn’t know were possible at the time. I was only four, which is how old my daughter is now. I didn’t understand everything that had happened. I just had a fuzzy memory of my mother holding me over the side of my father’s hospital bed and telling me to…
-
Traveling, publishing, and writing
So, I traveled for work last week. I drove to the airport, flew to DFW, and took a 20-minute taxi ride to my hotel to go to a conference on licensing. Trademark licensing and editing are my day jobs at Arkansas Tech University, and I love them almost as much as I love writing. The conference allowed me to connect with a group of like-minded people I could chat with about issues we all experience in our roles as licensing directors. My travel experience was pleasant. I don’t mind flying at all. In fact, I kind of love traveling occasionally. I enjoy people-watching in the airport. My flight was on…
