No posts from me here since August of last year? Hmph, looks a whole lot like it’s time to call it quits with this blog. I started with the best of intentions and some big dreams, but life doesn’t always bend the way you’re expecting it to. What time I’ve had for writing, I’ve devoted to my novel instead of posting here, which feels right to me. The one post that’s consistently gotten hits and comments has been the Manuscript formatting discussion, so I’ll probably try to find a way to host that somewhere else so others can continue to take adavantage of it. In the meantime, thanks to everyone who’s read this blog, and especially to those who’ve commented.

If for some reason you just want to keep following me and my writing career, you can always use Twitter. I’ll keep posting with the username “wordsforwriters”. So long, and thanks for all the fish.

Bill Womack

My attention span has been about this –><– long lately. Between the brain-melting summer heat, a full plate of day-job craziness, and massing forces for a final assault on my current manuscript, I’m tapped. My bedside table is piled high with novels that bristle with bookmarks, but I’m having trouble making through a story arc that’s longer than a comic strip. Amidst the daily ADD fiesta, I (finally!) found something blog-worthy enough to carve out a few minutes to write about it. Well, two somethings, actually… Read the rest of this entry »

My cousins, gather ’round, for news I bring. Lo these months, ye have no doubt noticed a certain slowness of mind betwixt these pages, and a finger to match. It appeareth that I would sooner with a man-sized cocktail fork be run through than spill precious time in scribery to thee. Alas! ‘Tis true that time be not my friend, but rather a fickle and odiferous maltworm.

Fear not my knaves and damsels, for a light breaks through yonder browser, and its name be Twitter! These coming days, I shall endeavor to scrawl the foul and wretched ramblings of my lumpish mind in a mere seven score strokes of my pen. Let their brevity be matched only by the gentle manner in which they lightly lie on land like flakes of new-fallen snow.

Rise up and follow me! Bend thy knuckles at the home of yon tiny bird and tap “wordsforwriters” on thy board of keys. Huzzah!

This morning was a lot like the previous few up on Mount Tabor; slate-gray, damp, with a hint of chill in the air. It might be nearing spring on the calendar, but winter seems determined to get at least one more jab in before hitting the mat. So I’m up on the mountain, doing what amounts to the only exercise I get during your average day, when it happens again: the completely, utterly, ludicrously unexpected. Read the rest of this entry »

5:30: The alarm goes off and I slap it on the head. Groggy. Think of some bizarre dream I had. Wonder why I waste so much mental energy on drivel while in REM sleep. Wish I had some revelation about my novel instead, but no…

6:00: Cold water on face, teeth brushed, coffee in hand. I sit down to read myself awake in my office. The house is dark and quiet. I like it. Lose myself in a novel for a good half-hour or forty-five. Think of it as inspiration.

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My apologies for not writing in such a long time. November was consumed by NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). Then came the holidays, hard on its heels. And as if that wasn’t distraction enough, we were hit with Snowpocalypse 2008™, the mother of all snowstorms. It was a mother, too; blanketed Portland in sixteen inches of snow for which we were completely unprepared. My dogs loved it, but by the time our white Christmas came around, all anyone could do was grumble about how much we missed the rain. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s October 31st, and you know what that means… synopsis day! Yep, screw the candy corn and sheet-ghosts, this is the last day before the kick-off of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). It’s been a month since I decided to participate, so naturally I’m getting around to outlining my ideas today. I. Am. Not. Ready. Read the rest of this entry »

Mystery fans have lost one of the genre’s most original voices. Tony Hillerman, the author of 18 Navajo-themed mysteries, has died at 83. Read the rest of this entry »

Today is Blog Action Day, a concerted effort by bloggers world-wide to raise awareness of a topic that affects us all. I must admit, when I first heard that this year’s topic was poverty, I was a wee bit apprehensive. What could I possibly say about being poor that would have any meaning?  Read the rest of this entry »

Technology ought to be simple, don’t you think? Blogging technology certainly is. Thanks to WordPress, adding a new post here is as simple as opening a vein and letting it flow into the keyboard, then hitting “Publish”. One aspect of blogging has always bugged me though, and that’s the reading part—more specifically, feed reading. Until now, that is. I just found an excellent new website that has rocked my blog reading world. Read the rest of this entry »