Author Ruth F. Stevens is our guest today. WOW! WOMEN ON WRITING TOUR is hosting Ruth and her brand new novel, My Year of Casual Acquaintances. And Choices is very pleased to share Ruth's essay about how important our casual relationships are to our lives. We hope it will encourage you to read the entire book: How casual acquaintances play an important role in our lives By Ruth F. Stevens I doubt anyone would question that our close friends and relatives are the people we hold most dear in the world. But the casual acquaintances we encounter in our daily lives can also enrich us, filling needs that are different from those met by our family members and besties. Casual acquaintances can take many forms. Maybe she’s the co-worker you enjoy chatting with over coffee in the breakroom. Or the man who’s been styling your hair for the past ten years. Or the cheerful retiree who volunteers at the hospital the same afternoon as you. … [Read more...]
Welcome Alle C. Hall and her strong authorial voice
Choices is so pleased to host Alle C. Hall during her WOW! WOMEN ON WRITING TOUR of her book: As Far As You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back. It's a runaway story with a whole different twist. Alle has also written a guest post for us about how creativity and trauma are linked. We certainly agree with that. Choices has had many essays about how healing writing is. Here's Alle C. Hall. The Link Between Creativity and Trauma by Alle C. Hall Trauma sits like a stone over the part of the brain that stimulates creativity, squashing it. Children who grow up effected by trauma use their creativity primarily to stay alive. In the U.S. alone, five In the U.S. in 2021, an estimated 1,820 children died from abuse and neglect. There are other trauma responses, as well. For example, the survivor might plunge obsessively into their art, or computer programming. A second way of coping might result in worldly success. While nice for the bottom line and the ego, fame … [Read more...]
Over fifty and hiking the John Muir trail – WOW!
We're pleased to introduce you to Joan Griffin and her book Force of Nature: Three Women Tackle the John Muir Trail. It's astonishing that she and her friends did this after the age of fifty - something we should all aspire to do. Joan as also honored us with a guest post: "Why You Should Write Your Life Story." There's some very good advice in her words. Here's Joan: Why You Should Write Your Life Story by Joan M. Griffin I have an antique wooden box filled to the brim with cherished old letters tied into bundles with faded satin ribbons. The box contains every letter my father wrote to my mother during World War II. A young man, he’s an officer in the Navy in the Pacific Arena. In the first letters, he sounds like the boy he was, kind of foolish, kind of full of himself, kind of shy. His later letters are serious, with his stress coming through between the lines of his attempted jokes. When the war was over and Dad came home, the … [Read more...]
Get your heart racing with this book!
Choices is pleased to present the WOW! Women on Writing Blog Tour for: A Shadow of Love A Shadow of Love blog tour starts October 3rd and ends November 5th. Accompanying this tour announcement, author Amy S. Cutler has written an essay about writing a first draft. Something all of us authors work very hard to complete. Here's what Amy has to say: First draft process by Amy S Cutler Nicholas Sparks once said, “Writing the last page of the first draft is the most enjoyable moment in writing. It’s one of the most enjoyable moments in life, period.” This is so, so true. There is no feeling like getting to the end. Even knowing the hours of revising and editing that is lurking around the corner, finishing the first draft is liberating. There are SO many ways to tackle a first draft. There are pantsers and plotters and everyone in between. Some people outline and plot out every and turn, organizing either in a document, through a software program just for … [Read more...]
We welcome Linda Rosen while on her WOW! book blog tour
Linda Rosen, author of The Disharmony of Silence, is on Day 10 of her WOW! Women On Writing book blog tour. Choices is pleased to welcome her and her thoughts about how being outdoors helped inspire her creative self. I know the feeling. I walk outdoors a lot - especially to the beach - and I always welcome ideas the eventually become part of my creative material. Here's what Linda has to say: Get Outdoors, Inspire Your Creative Self by Linda Rosen Why is it that I always come up with great dialogue while swimming laps with the sun glistening on the water? No, I’m not talking to myself out loud. Swimmers nearby would wonder about my sanity. It’s my characters who are talking to each other, in my head, and sometimes even arguing. Simply gliding through the water, hearing its soft splash as my hand reaches forward and slips down into the aqua pool, completing a stroke, relaxes my mind and when the mind is clear, creativity flows. One doesn’t have to swim to create gems. … [Read more...]
