Welcome to the Make Something Every Day blog, where I intend to talk about creativity, process, books I love, writers I adore -- you get the picture.

Here's my January wrap-up: THE CITY AND IT'S UNCERTAIN WALLS by Haruki Murakami (not pictured) I didn't love the Murakami -- but I don't need to rehash all that as I already covered all my thoughts on that here. -- RUTH by Kate Riley This was a great read for the start of the year, a thoughtful and funny story about a woman with a real independent streak who spends her whole life living in an Anabaptist community in the States and Canada. It asks, what makes a life full, is

I am very lucky to have a home office that I love -- but I also have four kids and a husband who constantly knocks at the door and a very busy run around schedule and sometimes the "butt in seat" recurring task list to get my writing done doesn't happen in the afore-mentioned seat. And I'm here to tell you, when you have to get those words on the page, you have to do that, anywhere and everywhere you are. Carry your notebook everywhere, and/or liberally deploy the notes app o

I visited Out West Books in Grand Junction this, as part of my goal to visit at least 12 independent bookstores in 12 months this year. I stole the idea from someone on Threads and I think it's geniuus for several reasons. First, because I like to buy books. They are good for my brain and my spirit and they keep my creative juices going -- i've written about that before . Second, because I want to keep my shopping as local as possible and support small businesses, which at th

January 2026 January 2025 Recently I posted a photo of my current TBR stack, which lives perilously close to my bed in earthquake country, on Instagram, and realized it looked very much like my TBR stack from the previous year. Some of the top piles had changed, but those books on the bottom are just waiting and waiting and waiting for me give them some attention. I feel a little guilty about that. I feel bad that I constantly bring in new work instead of committing to what I

One of my greatest challenges as a writer is capturing the ideas, the notes, the scenes, the perfect lines of dialogue that all seem to occur to me when I am NOT at my desk. I have tried all sorts of things to corral the madness. Little notebooks all over the house, in the car -- but then those notes have to get transferred to the MASTER notebook. Texting myself -- same transfer issue, and honestly I'd forget I'd sent myself a text. Emailing myself -- same problem. You all ge

I want to preface this by saying I use "Book Review" in a very loose sense. This is probably more of a vibe check than anything else. Which is alright because honestly this whole book is kind of one extended vibe check and it's not really my vibe. I've never been a huge Murakami fan. I think I started and stopped with The Wind Up Bird Chronicles, a million years ago, which I only read because the guy I was dating whose other favorite book was The Rachel Papers told me I shoul