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Holiday Quotes to Get You in the Spirit

Lynette M Burrows

December holidays are plentiful and different and yet… they each offer more than shopping, and gift getting, and partying. No matter which day you celebrate, here are some holiday quotes to get you in the spirit. Happy Bodhi Day A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity. Buddha Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. Buddha Happy Kwanzaa Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” African Proverb Happy Hanukkah “To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle, every cubic inch of space is a miracle.” – Walt Whitman  “At this time of year, when the sun is most hidden, the holiday of Hanukkah celebrates the rays of hope and light. Often, it is through simple and unrecognized miracles that we are able to feel the warmth of hope and light.”~ Rafael Goldstein “A candle is a small thing. But one candle can […]

Your Success as a Female Author of SF & F

Lynette M Burrows

Your Success as a female author has challenges. One of them is to find mentors who inspire you no matter where you are in your career path. In my last two Monday posts, I shared the names of many women writers who have been very successful writing fiction. (If you missed them read “Who Does Your Greatest Success Look Like” and “Are You Aiming for Their Writing Success?”) The field of science fiction and fantasy novels has been dominated by men for a very long time. Being a female author of SF & F (science fiction and fantasy) increases the difficulty of reaching success. Yet, more and more women authors are entering the field. And many of them are flourishing. Let’s take a brief look and see if you can find a mentor or two. Perhaps you’ll find some inspiration to carry you through NANOWRIMO and the rest of your career. The Best-Selling Science Fiction by Women The best-selling books by female author of SF & F is difficult to determine. Methods of collecting that information are so variable as to make the data useless. Turning to Ranker again, I looked up the 100 best science fiction authors. The complete list is here. […]

Are You Aiming for Their Writing Success?

Lynette M Burrows

These five women authors are the top five of the Best Female Novelists of All Time (adapted from Ranker)  On your road to success, you may wish to follow the path of someone who has been there. In this series of blog posts, we’ll briefly review the writing lives of these authors. When you are aiming for writing success, understanding what others’ success looked like helps.  Virginia Woolf 1882-1941 British author, Virginia Woolf, produced at least ten novels, many short stories, plays, essays, and reviews. Virginia started writing in 1900 at eight years old. Her first published piece appeared in 1915. This home schooled author wrote about artistic theory, literary history, women’s writing, and the politics of power. Her novels fall into the women’s literary fiction category.  Fiction is like a spider’s web, attached ever so slightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners. Often the attachment is scarcely perceptible. Virginia Woolf While working on her first novel, she asked friends and relatives for advice. Thereafter, she allowed no one to see her manuscripts.  She wrote standing for a while because, like a painter, she wanted to step back from her canvas to get a better view. And she experimented with different […]