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.

I was delighted to spend the weekend at the LA Times Book Festival (Bookchella) where tens of thousands of readers descended upon the USC campus to attend author panels and shop for books and book-related swag.  I attended several panels and thought I'd share a few book recommendations for your spring and summer TBR stacks. 

Super productive writing week this week but one can't help but wonder how much more I could have done if I hadn't spent so much time scrolling Threads.

This year I finally got smart and went lo-tech using POST-ITS of all things, and lo and behold my creativity is OFF THE CHARTS if I do say

A quick look at my writing practice this week. Six out of seven days -- not terrible!

What keeps you from writing your magnus opus?   Is it time? Do you simply not have enough of it? Are you busy at work, and exhausted when you get home? Raising kids and exhausted all the time? Or do you suddenly have so much time that the pressure to work has slowly evaporated?   Believe me, I can relate.   When I still had tiny kids at home, my sleep was so wrecked anyway I would get up between first morning nursing and the mid-morning nursing write then. When the kids got a

Here's a look at last week's work. Sunday March 1 Wrote 90 mins, 618 words Spent another hour brainstorming ways to re-order Act 1 with more propulsion Monday March 2 Spent another hour brainstorming plot and structure Wrote 145 words Typed up all outstanding work Tuesday March 3 Wrote 500 words I didn't love Wednesday March 4 Spent most of the day at the barn waiting for my vet and stressing out. Had more than enough time to write when sitting there, but couldn't make myself

I read at a much slower pace than usual in February, mostly because I started reading The Power   by Naomi Alderman, which I really disliked, but then I got too far in to abandon it. And being too far in to abandon it, did I then race through to the end to try to get it over with? No I did not. I just stopped reading in general because I didn't want to keep reading The Power, and again, I felt too far in to give up, and I can't read two books at once any more because YAY MENO

Welcome to the first of my weekly "Writing Week" posts. I'm going to try to do these each week in case they help inspire other writers. I track my daily output on my Google calendar. Each day I aim to write at least 100 words on my novel (I write those by hand in my Master Notebook ) and to transcribe that work into Scrivener where it waits for the big edits that will come when this draft of the book is complete. According to Google, here's what this week looked like: Sunday

My writing practice is not just about putting words on the page. In order for me to be a creative person, I have discovered that my daily writing practice has to involve the following things: Writing my morning pages Writing a minimum of 100 words on my current project Reading at least 25 pages of a novel Going for a walk One of those things is not like the other -- or is it? My morning pages help me organize my brain, and shake the dust out. My writing minimum ensures I make

I do a lot of my best work looking like this: That's how I look first thing in the morning, on my way up the stairs for my first cup of coffee.    I take that cup of coffee straight to my desk, grab my master notebook out of my house purse , and write my morning pages, every single day. And yes, really, when I'm half awake, that's where the sausage gets made.   Let's unpack this a little bit.    Morning pages are a practice promoted by Julia Cameron in The Artist's Way .  The

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