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39

Tomorrow I turn 39 (three perfect 13s, if you’re in the know) and while yesterday I reflected bitterly on the year that brought me here, today I will honor it. . Because while it was a year of devastating loss and grief, it was also a time of tremendous personal growth for me. . I revised and submitted a manuscript to my agent, and my agent submitted it to publishers. I began this story in…

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Vine

Was talking to @asherinley tonight about how long story ideas “percolate” in my mind and realized I’ve been thinking about these sisters since I was in high school, maybe even junior high. Let’s say 25 years ago. ☕ The idea is just a seed for the longest time. In the back of my head. With enough watering (curiosity, creativity, literature, wonder), the seed grows. After months (or years, in…

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Story-Souls

I feel creative but exhausted, which means I’m spending my time being curious. For me, this means reading articles about intriguing facts, phenomena, and philosophies. I’m looking for little story-souls. Although I have lots of characters and major plot lines in my head, I need more. So I’m soul-searching in a different way. 📸: Christian Dubovan via…

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Revision Syllabus

#BehindTheScenes of revising #YesNovel. Will I stay on track with this syllabus? Almost certainly no. 😂 But it’s a guide, motivation, reminder, and gentle accountability. It also activates my 3 wing and moves me from my let’s-spend-ages-thinking-about-the-meaning-here 4 to my achiever 3. (#enneagram4w3 talk, if that just sounded like mumbo jumbo to you!) . . . #blog #writer #writing #writinglife…

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Behind the Scenes

I’m reading a book that says to show my life behind-the-scenes. I already try to be very real and sometimes vulnerable on social media, but here’s my recommitment to it in 2021. 🌾 So here are a few glimpses of me behind-the-scenes: 🌾 I need A LOT of rest. A lot a lot. Once or twice a month, I will stay in bed all day. (Today was one of those days… Slept till 2 pm, though sometimes it’s 4 or…

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Right Hook

This week was a right hook, wow. Monday took ALL my energy and I was able to make it through the next three days running on empty, but today my body said NO to spring semester orientation. I slept ridiculously late, but clearly needed it. I’ll use this weekend to find the hope I had before this week. I sense it’s not too far. https://www.instagram.com/p/CJzIo_vnotz/?igshid=v3t3rmlghvdg

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Dear Self

Dear self, remember this week, this first week of 2021 and all the freedom and responsibility it brought. All the hope and effort and motivation. . It’s gonna get harder from here on out, returning to work, diving back into the busyness. But please remember sitting on the couches with Chelsea, the two of you ticking off your accomplishments, and Chel saying, “2021 is coming up US,” and how you…

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The Call

Started working on a plot outline for #YesNovel and then got suddenly super excited to write a #firstdraft and spent the rest of the evening thinking about #WheelNovel. Just feeling grateful for ideas and creativity and the call to write. https://www.instagram.com/p/CJkzVB0nrgI/?igshid=1nswpbklu10xy

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Spaces

Focusing on healthy spaces. It was the Fab Five from @queereye who made me realize just how much my disordered spaces both represented and enforced my disordered insides. It has been a SLOW SLOG, hampered further by physical illness/limitations, but I’m getting there! 📌 I’ve learned a lot from @home.by.eleven (and wholeheartedly endorse her if you need help organizing your own disordered…

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twenty twenty-one

A weird, good start to the year: slammed with fatigue, I didn’t leave my room till 3:30 pm. But I finished a book and started a new one. I ate a salad and cleaned my room a little, including making the bed, which I almost never do. I watched a movie and started to figure out a revision plan for #YesNovel. 🌱 Just like 2020, I’ll take 2021 one day at a…

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Whale Day by Billy Collins

Death runs like a thread through these poems, weaving in and out, never subtle, rather, “death is the magnetic north of poetry” here. ➕ The fourth section hit me hardest, because “The Ghost in You” by the Psychedelic Furs began to play, and the first poem is one I know well, only here Collins made the smallest changes, so it was like finding myself in a dream in a room I know I know but cannot…

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Teen Talk: Writing Effective YA Dialogue

MN Christian Writers Guild Teen Talk 2020 by Jackie Lea Here’s the presentation I gave earlier this week. I hope it’s helpful to someone out there!

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The Future Looks Like Anna

I got a fascinating email today; it was from a librarian who runs a teen writing workshop, and they had used some resources from my website. One of the young writers– Anna– wants to write for film or theatre, and she noticed I didn’t have resources about script/screenwriting and wanted to share a link. You can read it here.

I love that Anna noticed a gap in my resources, found her own, and…

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Thresholds

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHV1c8TnVhZ/?igshid=5f3umpd0g65w

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Courage, dear heart

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OCD treatment taught me to sit with discomfort. 2020 is reminding me how. . I've thought over and over and over of that scene in Voyage of the Dawn Treader, when madness seems to have descended on the crew, when nightmares feel close enough to hear climbing up the sides of the ship. . Lucy cries out for Alan's help and feels the tiniest bit better…

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Blessed Work

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2020 has reminded me of the joyful, challenging, blessed work of creative writing. I can’t help but think of how Annie Dillard described it: "At its best, the sensation of writing is that of any unmerited grace. It is handed to you, but only if you look for it. You search, you break your heart, your back, your brain, and then – and only then – it is…

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The Old Blinders

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Can we talk about self awareness for a moment? It's a wonderful, amazing thing. Self awareness allows us to evaluate ourselves, manage our emotions, make our lives and actions line up with our values. Taking part in weekly therapy sessions has been HUGE for me in terms of self awareness. I am always thinking through who I am, who I want to be, how to…

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