Literary Heroes, Continued: David Foster Wallace

It would be a fair assessment to say that I'm an odd individual.  Since I'm a writer, I suppose that's a good thing.  In fact, it may even be part of the reason I started writing in the first place.  However, life is not always user-friendly for the odd people of the world.  Because of...

Literary Heroes Continued: Thank You, Jonathan Larson

I've spent the past few weeks frantically grading essays and final exams.  However, I'm not immune to the charms of the holiday season, and as a writer, I have a number of favorite holiday stories.  A Christmas Carol by Dickens is certainly at the top of the list, followed by O'Henry's The Gift of the Magi. ...

Literary Heroes, Continued: James O’Barr

Well, it appears that I've once again fallen off the blogging wagon.  My apologies!  There has been quite a bit of excitement lately, starting with an additional teaching job that I picked up at the beginning of November.  I'm also in the process of applying to a couple of Ph.D programs. However, now that I seem...

Literary Heroes, Part Two: Tiffanie DeBartolo

I never thought that I could write a novel.  It wasn't for lack of trying--I wrote many novel "beginnings", but never got to a single "ending."  I would get three chapters in, and then I'd have no idea what to do.  Somewhere along the line, though, things started to change.  I started to think that I might...

Writing Heroes Part 1: Donald Hall

I recently read a biographical note on Bram Stoker that described him as "prone to hero-worship."  I was overjoyed!  I too am hopelessly prone to hero-worship, and some people think that's a bad thing.  Bram Stoker and I beg to differ. My literary heroes are many and varied.  I could fill an entire post simply...

Thoughts on Writing Every Day

Well, it appears that I fell off the edge of the blogosphere for a couple of weeks.  My apologies.  I don't even have a valid excuse: I was distracted by a week of birthday shenanigans followed by a week of vacation.  That being said, I thought this week might be a good time to discuss how...

Character Quirks

Given the title of this blog, you may perhaps be wondering what black eyeliner has to do with writing.  This is a question I pondered myself as the idea for this post took root.  The bottom line is, I love black eyeliner, and lots of it.  In fact, as far as appearance goes, my living dead...

Writer vs. Rejection Letter: An Ongoing Battle

Every time I get a rejection letter from a lit journal or agent, it makes me feel like I just got punched in the stomach.  It's virtually the same sensation: pain, nausea, the desire to curl up in the fetal position for an indefinite period of time.  You'd think that after ten years of submitting...

Major Tom to Ground Control: First Post

Hi!  I'm Cara.  I like roller skates, glam rock, costume jewelry and rodents.  I'm fairly indifferent to long walks on the beach.  I created this blog to share my experiences as a writer.  This is not to say that I'll be writing about staring at a laptop screen while the next scene in my novel builds...