Winslow on BlogTalkRadio – Do Your Possessions Possess You?

Listen to internet radio with WriteSpa Oasis for Writers on Blog Talk Radio This week, Winslow talks about her grandmother’s—and her mother’s—favorite tenet in life: “Don’t let your possessions possess you.” What are your favorite possessions? Would would you choose to hold onto no matter what?

Writespa #73 – Hey, Beautiful!

In my editing practice, two words that writers overuse when they’re describing characters they want to impress you with are “beautiful” and “handsome.”

What, exactly, are they trying to say? What makes someone appear beautiful?

Especially irritating to me is when an author writes: “She used to be beautiful, but now she had a few wrinkles around her eyes…”

Argh. Irk. You’d be much better off saying,“She used to be twenty-two…” […]

WriteSpa #63 – A Place of One’s Own

WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers

 As I was conversing with a WriteSpa client, and we were discussing assignments and goals, I asked her where she wrote. She hesitated, then said, “It’s a bit problematic…I don’t have a laptop and my computer’s in the living room. I don’t really have a place for it.”

From the way she spoke, I could tell that using “the computer” was for her a chore, a bit of a nuisance, something that she ‘should’ turn on and use, like a vacuum cleaner, perhaps. I knew that for her to have a satisfying relationship with Mr. Write, the ambience surrounding the area where she worked was crucial. […]

WriteSpa #55 – Golden Rabbits, St. Brigid, Imbolc, and Groundhogs

WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers

February 2 is a turning point. The new moon falls halfway between the winter solstice and spring equinox.  In Celtic history this festival was known as Imbolc; the Christians changed it to Candlemas, and the Irish celebrate it as St. Brigid’s Day. Imbolc signifies pregnancy and spring, and is honored with fire, foretelling, and remembering through storytelling. The day is also used to assess what the weather is going to be like in the coming weeks till spring.

This year, the new moon is also the first day of the 4708th Chinese New Year. This is going to be the Year of the Golden Rabbit. Why golden? It’s not actually golden, but metal. There are twelve Chinese year animal signs, but there are also five elements that each of these animals circle through (wood, fire, earth, metal, water). Each animal goes through an annual cycle of these five elements, in two forms – one yin and one yang. This means that a complete cycle is sixty years – and the last one we encountered was in 1951. […]