Jamie B Musings

I guess it’s no secret that I am a huge supporter of writing groups. I am a member of two, and lead a third one. They have been a huge source of support and great information, and I truly believe that you are missing out if you do not participate in one.

Here is the thing, though. Not all writing groups are created equal. While there are so many amazing and supportive ones out there, I have seen a few things happen in the writing community I believe is destructive and wrong.

The Florida Writers Association has been having some great events in conjunction with our local libraries. On Saturday, they had one of the "coffee house" showcases where several writers take turns speaking about themselves and their books. CP and I knew two of the writers who were scheduled to speak, so as soon as the latest Indie Review show was done, got ready to go and check out.

A funny thing happened when we got there. Two of the scheduled speakers had to cancel, so that meant two...

I have once again signed up for the Camp NaNo challenege, and can't wait to see how it all turns out. I will be re-writing the second part of Stains, as well as working on a secret project I can't quite talk about at the moment. All I can say is, it involves other authors and will be awesome. Sadly, I think this is going to be my latest start ever. So glad we can pick our own word count for this!

For some reason, this re-write is giving me huge trouble. I can't quite get the...

Hey everyone! It's Monday, so you know what that means: blog post time! I've been a little bit busy lately doing re-writes on a NaNoWriMo project called Stains On the Soul. I'd say I'm about anywhere from 50-60 percent finished with the re-write, and I can't wait to get it out there! In the meantime, I decided to create some new pintrest boards.

Okay, what on earth does that have to do with this book? Well, every writer needs a little distraction, and Pintrest can be fun! ...

Hello, everyone! Jamie doesn't know it yet, but I'm going to be taking over her blog now and then. Want insight straight from a muse? Here is your place to get it! I'll even open this up to any questions you might have regarding muses and the whole writing thing.

You want to know what the most difficult part of being a muse is? Not having enough rope to tie your charge to a chair when you want them to work. I guess I should be used to humans getting distracted by now, especially...

Good afternoon! I wanted to share a little something with you I did for Bitten Twice's writing group. The assignment was to come up with a flash story bashed on a picture of a hot-air balloon. This is what I came up with....

“How did I let you talk me into this?” Emily’s voice cracked as distance separated her from the nice, stable ground below. It really didn’t make sense to her; the ground was steady and reliable. If you tripped while ...

Have you been experiencing writer's block? I know I do. It's so hard for me to get the ideas flowing, but once they are? I can totally sit down and crank the words out. This has served me very well during NaNo months. Most of the ideas end up coming to me from conversations with CP. He is seriously an idea machine and I am completely jealous of that ability. There are times, however, when I can't get his help.

Bitten Twice has banned us from helping each other in any way wit...

I've been thinking up a lot of things I want to do this year. One of those includes offering my book on other online retailers. Since that means leaving KDP Select, I decided I would make the occasion by offering The Life and Times of No One In Particular for free. Stop by the link on Feb. 12th, 13th, or 14th to get your free copy. It's my thank you to everyone who has been following my b...

I was stuck on what I wanted to write about here for this week. It's hard being a writer and blogger, y'all. Seriously. I mean, look at all the distractions out there! Here are some of the things that tend to eat up my writing time and am trying to look out for:

1) Song Pop. I have been purposefully avoiding this one for awhile now. It's a Facebook game where you challenge your friends and other users of the app to guess a song the fastest. For a music geek like me, this is writ...

As you may have heard by now, I'm part of a writer's group run by author Bitten Twice. A lot of what we do in there is critique stuff we've written and are planning to publish. There are times, also, where she issues us a challenge. The meeting a couple of weeks ago was one of those times. She had a book with her filled with writing challenges (mostly picture prompts with some brief text).

This was the picture she gave us to work with: