Local Librarian Pens Heavy Metal Memoir Long before she became a librarian, Anna-Marie O’Brien was a fan of hard rock and heavy metal music. In her new book, Adventures of a Metalhead Librarian, she recounts how, at the age of eighteen, she moved to Los Angeles and began working in the music industry, first for Megadeth,…
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I spent this summer editing my book, and I pretty much neglected every thing else – like blogging and twittering. But what I did do was have fun with my kids, I made great new real-life writing friends, and I started thinking about my next book. I can’t wait to get started on it. My…
Progress is NOT Always Word Count
I’m pleased to share with you my latest guest post for my friend and writing coach, Lauren Sapala. Writing Progress Does NOT Always Equal Word Count Happy Monday to you! AMO
Spirals, Not Lines or Circles
My whole life, I’ve tried to adapt myself to what was expected of me, and to be honest, like many people who deal with perfectionism, I struggled for many years with my own expectations of myself. Holding on to these patterns kept me stuck for many years – stuck not writing my story, stuck in…
Memoir & Magic
When I started writing my rock n’ roll memoir, I searched for answers as to why I was having such a hard time with it. I had the story neatly laid out in my mind, but when it came time to write, it was a jumbled mess. I’ve been an intuitive, sensitive person my whole…
Gap Work
December. I love this time of year, when darkness lingers a bit longer, and cooling clouds visit our blue Arizona skies more often. It’s perfect writing weather. I’m going to hold off on starting a big new writing project, though. I didn’t do NaNoWriMo this year, but I did reach a milestone with my writing,…
How to Write a Good First Draft in Five Short Years
I’ve had the idea for writing this memoir for a long damn time – it’s been germinating since 1992. 11 years later, after hearing part of my story, a professor of mine expressed interest in the material. I was just starting my career as a librarian – writing a book seemed insurmountable. But it kept…
Updates & Progress
I don’t even know where to begin. The last time I posted to this blog was June. JUNE! It’s easy to beat myself up for it, because according to every writing rule I’ve read, I should be doing a bunch of stuff to further my writing career. Blogging, Twittering, Facebooking, e-mail lists, etc. That’s all…
Juggling
It’s June 1st. I’m supposed to start rewriting, today. I gave myself a couple of weeks to read through my draft and make notes and edits and sit with the work, convinced that I’d have a clear map and a new understanding of where this book was going. I’ve had moments and flashes of terrific…
There Is No Time
Chris Cornell died yesterday and it’s had me all kinds of thinking. It’s rare that I am ambivalent about an artists death. Especially an artist like Chris Cornell, who helped define a whole generation of music. I think about all the creative work he had yet to do, and what his music meant to me….