Author: Kay Kauffman

A geek to the core, I reside in the midst of an Iowa cornfield with my husband and four children. When I'm not chasing the kids every which way but loose, you can find me penning fantastical tales of great heroism and twue wuv...and possibly procrastinating online.

A work in progress

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Work on my novel continues…slowly. I’m my own worst critic, I know, but it’s very hard to turn that inner critic off.

Still, I didn’t think this bit was all that bad:

It was then that he noticed the silence. Riverdell was a small, quiet town, but it had nothing on this place. Even on the quietest night in Riverdell, there was always traffic thrumming in the distance. Electricity sang through the power lines; streetlights hummed on otherwise dark streets; kids toting stereos pumped up the bass loud enough to rattle a whole building.

There was none of that here. There was only the wind in the trees here, tall grass waving in the breeze, a cricket choir backed by a bug band singing him to sleep.

It was another beautiful day here today, and the warmth of the sun has been most welcome. I hope you’re all having a fantastic weekend!

(c) 2017. All rights reserved.

Expecting Valentines

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A friend of mine posted the following on Facebook:

“Every year there are a lot of “my husband/partner gave me X today – he’s/she’s so wonderful!” on Valentine’s day*. And yes, my hubby brought home a dozen roses (and a giant penguin earlier in the week) and while those things are great, he is not a wonderful husband because of them. He’s a wonderful husband because he listens to me, even when he doesn’t care about what I’m saying. He hugs me when I’m sad, even if he has to stop what he’s doing. He wastes his day to take me pokemoning, when he’d rather be playing his video games. He works hard ten plus hours a day, without complaining (more than normal), then comes straight home. He doesn’t blow our money on booze, or drugs, or gambling, he doesn’t get into trouble. He’s monogamous. He’s smart, funny, and most of all, he tries – not just once a year, but 360 days (hey, everyone takes a few days off, right?) And for that, I am very lucky.

*I’m not knocking those posts. I think it’s sweet that the recipients are excited and grateful.”

I read it this morning and couldn’t help thinking of my husband. He really doesn’t do Valentine’s Day, which makes the fact that he brought me home a bouquet of tulips yesterday all the more surprising. Gift-giving on Valentine’s is expected, and he doesn’t like being expected to give me a gift just because society says he should.

When Seymour first explained how he feels about Valentine’s Day, I have to admit…

Writing bunnies

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I’m home from work today with a sick little Thumper bunny and taking advantage of the unexpected time off to catch up on a bit of writing. I’m working on revisions for another novel, and it’s not going as well as I’d initially thought it would. There’s so much more to cut than I’d first thought: trying to keep it to one POV per scene is a major challenge.

I’ve been fiddling around with these books for a good decade. I even queried them a few years ago, but didn’t get anywhere. That, of course, happened long before I decided that one book should become two, but even then it was a hot mess. It’s still a hot mess, but at least I think I’ve grown as a writer since then. I still feel like the head-hopping isn’t such a big deal, but others (okay, pretty much everyone else) disagree, so I’m changing it.

And it’s hard. So very, very hard.

Silencing my diligent and devoted inner literary critic is even harder.

I think the changes I’m making will…

Transcribing memories

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20170112_222829I saw this week’s Discover Challenge post about transcribingmemory about a day after I had discovered the site for myself. Being a huge fan of diaries, and having kept diaries of my own since I was eight, I knew this was a challenge I could have a lot of fun with. I may not be nearly as devoted to my diaries as I was before I had kids, but I do still write in them every now and then, and this challenge provided me with the kick in the pants I needed to sit down and read through some of my old, old, OLD writing once again.

20170112_212507I learned a few things from reading my old diaries, like…

Inspirational quotes from…you!

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You all are some pretty fantastic people. Did you know that?

Well, it’s true. You are. And I want to share your fabulosity. 🙂

My recent-ish (okay, it’s from September) post about writing (or rather, about my lack of recent(ish) writing) has elicited a bunch of crazy awesome comments full of inspiration and encouragement. And, as a result of my efforts to be more positive about pretty much everything in 2017 than I was in 2016, I’ve picked out some of the best bits of the comment section on that particular post and turned them into pretty, pretty pictures.

I’m going to unveil them one by one for the next few months. First up is a quote from Ernest Hemingway, courtesy of Talewriter:

apprenticequote

 

There is just so much truth to this. I hope that, one day, I’ll be much closer to being a master than I am right now, but I suppose that’s really all any of us can say, regardless of whatever it is we’re trying to master. And despite what he said, I’ve got to think that Hemingway was about as much a master of the English language as anyone can hope to be.

So: Practice being masterful. That’s one of my goals for 2017. Because after all, practice makes perfect, right?

What are you going to try to master this year?

(c) 2017. All rights reserved.