In addition to writing, I’m also a physical therapist. Recently, I was honored when my friends Jenne and Andrea asked me to discuss how I use writing to fuel my physical therapy career in their group Women in Healthcare: Finding Joy After Burnout. I converted what I wrote to a blog post below. While I …
Hello 2020!
Photo credit: HusbeastPhoto description: view down a forested path with a large rock formation to the left. Happy New Year to those of you who use the Gregorian calendar. I hope you will forgive me, dear friends, for using this post for a bit of self-assessment. I share this both to keep myself accountable and …
This Holiday Season You Aren’t Broken
I adapted the following from a post I wrote on my personal social media for Thanksgiving. I felt it bore repeating today. It doesn't relate directly to writing, but it does have a lot to do with being human, and being human is the soul of my writing. Photo credit: HusbeastPhoto description: Sun shines on …
Diversity in Writing
Friends, I've messed up. For a long time I didn't realize the phrase "gypped" was a slur against people of Roma heritage, and for years I used it in conversation. It took me until my twenties to realize that some people are asexual or aromantic and in my ignorance I made hurtful comments. A few …
Lessons from NaNoWriMo 2019
November is over, and with it ends the joyous (and arguably masochistic) NaNoWriMo. This year, I set a goal of revising 50,000 words, and by the end of November I hit about 78,000. My brain says ouch. Here are my biggest takeaways from NaNoWriMo 2019. Screen shot of my winning word count for NaNoWriMo 2019. …
How Do You Get Ideas?
In my experience, there are two kinds of writers: writers who have too many ideas and writers who don't have enough. I am the second kind of writer, and for years I used it as one of my excuses not to write. As such, the question 'how do you get ideas?' holds special importance to …
NaNoWriMo: Come Again?
Note: If you have any desire to read this post with a soundtrack, here’s my recommendation. When I first heard a friend talking about NaNoWriMo my reaction was approximately “Gezundheit?” Fortunately, my friend was patient and explained the acronym: NAtionalNOvelWRItingMOnth I learned every November, writers around the world try to write an entire novel in …
Writing When You’re Engulfed in Flames
Image description: burned trees on a hillside. Photo credit: Husbeast, It's October. While others revel in the crisp mornings, the changing foliage, and everything pumpkin spice, not so for me. I dislike the cold and driving in the snow, so the shortening days typically feel like a threat. But this year, August and early September …
The Undefined Space
Fourteen years ago a friend and I arranged for some acquaintances from our debate team to go to a movie together. We hung out incessantly after that. As teenagers, perhaps we depended on each other for a sense of identity. We spent hours in my parents' basement draped over an uncomfortable couch, clustered around a …
Wait, whose name is that in the byline?
Friends- Announcement time! As of 12:00 midnight, I am a published author. https://dailysciencefiction.com/hither-and-yon/magic-realism/suzanne-miller/fear-of-falling Image description: view of a wooded hillside to the right and a wooded valley to the left/in the distance. Writing is like climbing a mountain with no summit. There's always a way to get better and achieve more (even for you, J.K. …
