The Good Kind of Pressure

It’s no secret that life at the moment is absolutely insane. This virus has the whole world on edge, hiding in our homes to avoid infection. Some people are coping better than others. As an introvert (mostly—the Myers-Briggs always has me one point away from extroversion), staying home isn’t so bad. I’ve worked to make…

Riding Another Post-Conference High

My second writers’ conference ended two days ago, and yet here I am, still floating around in my shimmering pink cloud. What a phenomenal experience it was! This was the same conference I went to before, the Southern California Writers’ Conference, but this time it was at their San Diego location, which was fun for…

Bullet-points Are For Busy People

As the title states, I’ve been very busy lately, what with work, and the holidays, and many overlapping writing projects. Over Christmas I was alternative between two different submissions: one for SCWC San Diego (I enjoyed the previous conference in Irvine so much that I signed up immediately), and one for FogCon, which I’d honestly…

My Reflections on the Southern California Writers’ Conference

What a whirlwind of a weekend! I think it’s safe to say my first conference was a success… I was so worried about the networking, but there’s one thing I hadn’t been considering: the fact that MOST of us writers are weird introverts, which means 1) we’re all in the same boat, and 2) we…

Pre-Conference Musings and the General Panic of Existence

Hi everyone, remember me? Lara Henerson, fiction writer? Yeah, it’s been a while… You know what’s ironic? I just re-read the first post I ever posted on this blog, and it’s all about how I am terrible at sticking to resolutions, particularly of the blog-writing variety, but that “this time it would be different!” Spoiler…

Total Character Makeover

After much anticipation, I finally received some valuable feedback on my first novel, three things. Of course, the optimistic compartment in my brain was hoping for only a few minor suggestions, so I could finally send my digital baby out into the world. I am so naive. What a rollercoaster. In general, the feedback was…

Validation, Motivation, Elation.

One week ago, I received some great news. The funny thing is, I was in the middle of teaching my ESL students, and the unit topic we were studying was “Good News, Bad News”. I just happened to check my email during the ten minute break, and there it was: a notification that my short…

Reuniting with Old Friends

It’s been a great week, in terms of writing. I know I still haven’t finished this novel, and I should probably save the bragging until I actually finished, but NaNoWriMo has been a major motivator for actually finishing this beast. I had been completely ignoring it for two years. Every time I thought about continuing…

The Benefits of Feedback

When writing something you really care about, it’s easy to want to keep it to yourself, lest someone tries to steal it. Personally, I’m wary about posting creative work online, and with good reason. After all, I know people who have had their work plagiarized, and it doesn’t exactly sound like a barrel of laughs. My…