Tuesday's Inspiration from an essay by Catherine Cookson

When I read the opening of this essay written years ago, I had a chuckle. Some things never change. This is advice to someone entering the game of writing. Even with the change in the publishing industry with the advent of electronic readers and the relative ease of getting books into the places that sell the books, this struck home. Words a budding writer or even an established one can heed.

""You must first of all make up your mind to turn deaf ears to all those well-wishers who tell you that the markets are swamped already and there isn't a hope in hell for newcomers."

Naysayers abound in this world and writing means taking a leap into the abyss. I recall when my first electronic book came out and how so many people said Ebooks would never last. Well, that first book Murder and Mint Tea is still selling fifteen years later. So are the other ones I wrote. I'm sure those words were said to writers when paperbacks arrived on the scene, too. Even the printing press that eventually took over from scrolls.

Taking the plunge can be fun and even exciting. Taking the plunge again and again takes a bit of courage. Much depends on what a writer wants to do in their career. Catherine Cookson ended the essay with these words, ""All I know is if you want to write, you'll write."

That says it all for me. What about you?

Tuesday's Inspiration -- Courage and Creativity

Is the writer a rebel. This doesn't mean going out and trying to take over a country or even a small place. What it means is that the artist seeks to explore chaos and make order of what they find. It also means passion creeps into a story. Sometimes the writer doesn't even realize they have written in this fashion, they are just exploring. Take a mystery writer. They may not realize how deep their passion is for justice. Or the romance writer for happy endings. But before they write the story, they must enter chaos and pull what truths they can discover there. Relationships between people always have a bit of chaos at the bottom.

Understanding or the desire to understand is what propels the writer as a rebel. In this understanding there is joy. Writing brings the joy of creating and the joy of finding a piece drawn from chaos.

This bit is short probably because I'm still digging into a bit of chaos called life.

Crossword puzzles

I must confess I'm addicted to crossword puzzles. Every Sunday morning my husband and I do the NY Times one. I'd like to say we complete it every time but there are a few times when we haven't. But I've learned a number of things from these puzzles that have been of use in my writing. The villain's name in The Henge Betrayed -- Flight was found in a puzzle. I also learned a word I adapted for a male harem used in The Temple of Fyre. The puzzles also keep my mind active and I learn new meanings for old words.