I’ll be speaking this upcoming Wednesday afternoon at the Tyler Public Library’s Open Door Writing Group. We meet on the 3rd floor of the Tyler Public Library in the Makerspace from 1-3pm. I’ve been asked to talk about “Forms in Poetry” again and I’ve been practicing writing some different forms so I’ll have some contemporary examples for you! I know it’s the day before Thanksgiving, but we’re home this year for it, so I’m taking a chance on others being as excited about poetry as I am. 🙂 Hope some of y’all can make it! 🙂
Tag: Speaking
In October, I wrote 4350 words, which is so little that I could cry. But I was busy! More about that later. Of those words,
- 320 were for this blog (2 short posts),
- 667 were for my journal,
- 0 were for handouts, scripts, and slides for lessons (I reused an old one for the Open Door Writing Group),
- 1204 were on various social media accounts,
- 1652 were poetry (9 poems),
- and 814 were in short stories (4 pieces of flash fiction).
There were only 12 days that I didn’t write anything. I spent 10 days on vacation, traveling to, then staying in North Carolina, and driving home. I used every morning as a little writer’s retreat and wrote a lot while I was there. I’m still having trouble with my shoulders, so I spent several days either at the doctor, at the physical therapist’s office, or off getting X-rays and a couple of MRIs. I do have an essay that I found out about an anthology for on the last day of October that I’m going to start writing this week (but that counts for November). I still didn’t get any poems or short stories submitted anywhere.
As for reading, I read parts of:
- Let Loose the Dogs by Maureen Jennings (e-book; historical mystery – I’m having trouble getting this book again through Libby, hence taking a break from it)
- The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn (audiobook; historical romance)
- Stargazy Pie by Victoria Goddard (e-book; cozy fantasy)
- The Man with Two Left Feet (e-book; I’m not sure the genre)
…and I finished reading:
- The Honey Witch by Sydney Shields (trade paperback; cozy fantasy)
So I have finished 49 books so far this year (and read parts of another 18, mostly for research, but also a couple of things I’ve had to mark DNF.).
I’ll be speaking this upcoming Wednesday afternoon at the Tyler Public Library’s Open Door Writing Group on “How to Test if a Story Idea is a Good One”. We meet on the 3rd floor of the Tyler Public Library in the Makerspace from 1-3pm. Hope some of y’all can make it! 🙂
In September, I wrote 4097 words. It’s still a busy month, even if all of your kids are out of high school. Yeah.
Of those words,
- 346 were for this blog (2 short posts),
- 0 were for my journal,
- 2024 were for handouts, scripts, and slides for lessons (one for the Open Door Writing Group),
- 448 were on various social media accounts (which seems low, I know, but I’ve been trying to cut back on that and spend more time reading lately),
- 1142 were poetry (3 short poems and 2 long),
- and 137 were in short fiction (1 piece of flash fiction).
There were 19 days that I didn’t write anything. I spent a lot of the month either moving my eldest child to his new apartment or I was editing for Caro’s Quest. One of the books I beta read for came out this month, so I’m feeling that weird sense of accomplishment about that (you know, in that way where you walked alongside a friend going through something that you got to help with, so it’s like it’s partly yours just a little bit?). Meanwhile, I personally didn’t get any poems or short stories submitted anywhere.
As for reading, I read parts of:
- The Comfort Book by Matthew Haig (audiobook; self-help)
- The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie (e-book; mystery)
- Let Loose the Dogs by Maureen Jennings (e-book; historical mystery)
- …and I finished reading:
Nothing Romantic by Kennedy Hope (e-book; LGBTQ+ romance) - System Collapse by Martha Wells (e-book; science fiction)
- Except the Dying by Maureen Jennings (e-book; historical mystery)
- Poor Tom is Dead by Maureen Jennings (e-book; historical mystery)
- Conversations in the Garden* by Chelsee BreAnn (manuscript; poetry )
So I have finished 48 books so far this year (and read parts of another 16, mostly for research, but also a couple of things I’ve had to mark DNF.).
*The title of this book has changed since it was in beta. It’s permanent title is Honeysuckle Memories.
As requested by one of our lovely writers, I’ll be talking about writing for contests at the Open Door Writing Group this Wednesday from 1-3pm at the Tyler Public Library in the 3rd floor Makerspace. Looking forward to seeing y’all then! #writingcommunity #writinglesson #writingforcontests

I’ll be speaking this upcoming Wednesday afternoon at the Tyler Public Library’s Open Door Writing Group. We meet on the 3rd floor of the Tyler Public Library in the Makerspace from 1-3pm. I’ll be speaking about what I learned at the Poetry Society of Texas’ Annual Conference. Hope some of y’all can make it! 🙂

I’ll be returning to the Tyler Public Library on Thursday, June 26th to teach Crochet Basics in the 1st floor auditorium starting at 7pm. The class is technically already full (so I’ve also agreed to teach it again in the fall sometime), but there’s a waitlist to be found here: Crochet Class Sign-up.

This Wednesday from 1-3pm in the 3rd floor Makerspace at the Tyler Public Library, I will present my lesson on “Writing Villains”. Hope to see you there!
As requested by one of our lovely writers, I’ll be talking about creating realistic villains at the Open Door Writing Group this Wednesday from 1-3pm at the Tyler Public Library in the 3rd floor Makerspace. Looking forward to seeing y’all then! #writingcommunity #writinglesson #writingforcontests

I’m going to be teaching Beginning Crochet at the Tyler Public Library on April 8th, 2025, starting at 5:30pm. We’ll be learning basics of crochet and everyone will have a little project to take home with them. Hope to see you there!
