Darswords

“I hear ya on the time management “tips” on the internet in general…I think most of those are written by people who don’t have ADHD or know much about it. It’s like a sighted person writing “tips for seeing” for blind people! That’s what I appreciate this blog…Doug knows what it’s like, and he offers tips that have worked for him.”

Yep…I’ve sure heard “that’s just an excuse” from my mother (a retired elementary school teacher!) many times about the struggles my children and I have. It doesn’t help that many of us CAN overcome our issues some of the time…people get the idea that we could do it if we really wanted to. It’s true…if I have a 7:30 meeting that I need to be there for and I know it will have a significant impact on my employment if I’m late, I will most likely be there. Same…

We spend a lot of time outside & one of our big challenges with outdoor living are a huge quantity disgusting flies!

In the past I’ve bought traps and bait (that smelled foul) & they have been really helpful.

However I have found a great DIY solution to keep the population down and best of all you can make this fly trap yourself from used plastic bottles which appeals muchly to my reusing ethos and also makes it FREE!

Here is a method to make an efficient fly trap from one of your used plastic water bottles.

This is great for all sorts of domestic flies, blow flies and fruit flies

Materials: scissors, a hacksaw or sharp knife and some packing or electric tape

BAIT- a small chunk of meat chopped into the water will attract blowflies or a small amount of cat/dog poo with a little water. This will cook…

Follow @martyfnemec

Seriously. Stop it.

I know this is easier said than done because it feels good to use big words. You have worked your entire life developing an extensive vocabulary. You have gone through school and college honing your craft and now you are a communication professional. Using big words is how people can tell that you’re intelligent. They don’t need to see a degree or search online for your blog to realize you know your way around the English language when you use complex words. Not only have you earned the right to use big words by paying college tuition and spending your entire life practicing writing, but some big words just feel nice rolling off of the tongue. Believe me, I do sympathize with you. As tempting as it is, however, once you log into Twitter or Facebook as a “professional,” you have to cut it out…

1. “The best fantasy is written in the language of dreams. It is alive as dreams are alive, more real than real … for a moment at least … that long magic moment before we wake.”

2. “The most important thing for any aspiring writer, I think, is to read! And not just the sort of thing you’re trying to write, be that fantasy, SF, comic books, whatever. You need to read everything. Read fiction, non-fiction, magazines, newspapers. Read history, historical fiction, biography. Read mystery novels, fantasy, SF, horror, mainstream, literary classics, erotica, adventure, satire. Every writer has something to teach you, for good or ill. (And yes, you can learn from bad books as well as good ones — what not to do).

And write. Write every day, even if it is only a page or two. The more you write, the better you’ll get. But don’t write…

Series fiction is popular. That’s not news to anyone. But why is it so crazily consumed these days? What aspects of series fiction attract us? What can a series accomplish that a standalone work cannot?

I am a huge sitcom fan. Most of my favorite sitcoms ran for over 7 or 8 years, so they are long and established series.

I got to thinking today about how I wrote a trilogy, which is its own kind of series, though in a different medium than sitcoms.

That led to me thinking about why I love to consume as well as produce series. What is it about a series that makes us want to keep going beyond one installment? (Beside cliffhangers. I don’t like cliffhangers. I’ve written before about why I don’t end my series novels with cliffhangers.)

I’m not saying series fiction and television are better than “one and done”…

While talking on the phone one day, I picked up a pen and began messing around with a pattern. I was paying more attention to the conversation than to what my pen was doing but when the phone call ended and I looked at the pattern, I thought there might be something there that I could work into a tangle. So I played with it off and on for a few weeks and finally polished it to this:

It is the tangle that goes diagonally across the tile, flanked by ‘Nzeppel in the upper left corner and Flux with Tipple in the lower corner. I call it Por Fin (which is Spanish for ‘at last’) because it has taken so long to accomplish this goal which began after the Zentangle certification seminar in October of 2011.

Here are the step- outs for recreating it followed by some of the variations…

If you read my blog a lot you might have noticed quite a few of my recipes come from my good friend Meredith Hickson. Well today she has written a guest post that asks us all to think critically about current cancer treatment methods and the importance of healthy living:

Every year a website called Cancer Monthly (http://www.cancermonthly.com/) hosts a scholarship program designed to promote “out of the box” thinking around cancer treatment. They invite students to read about the life of a special cancer victim named James “Rhio” O’Connor and then discuss how his story has inspired them to think differently about treating and preventing cancer.

Rhio O’Connor was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a cancer of the protective sacks that surround internal organs. Mesothelioma is associated with exposure to asbestos (you can learn more about mesothelioma here: (http://www.survivingmesothelioma.com). Classic approaches like chemotherapy or radiation haven’t proven…

Today’s topic is creative writing and the rules that come with being with an author. You know the rules I mean: we’ve all heard them. I’ll reference each one by one later on.

Don’t feel like you have to obey the rules. All you have to do is to know the rules. Once you do, you can break them if you want to, as long as you break them consistently.

Consistency is the key. I got the idea for this post after I wrote yesterday’s, because yesterday I talked about point of view and characterization. Specifically, I talked about how to characterize secondary characters when your point of view doesn’t allow you to “head hop.”

• Don’t head hop. This is one of those rules people like to throw around for a reason. You shouldn’t head hop if you’re limiting yourself to a limited POV. When your narrator only follows…