Blog Feed: Subplots By Grace

Word Peeves: SPILL!

Published on 2012-05-24 14:08:00

HI GUYS. AS I WAS pondering what to write, my Inbox alerted me to the latest post by HuffPost contributor, Zoe Triska. Titled, "The Phrase That Makes You Sound Like A Loser," it is a sure bet and will likely get scads of hits and comments. > read more

Hmm...Read or Sleep?

Published on 2012-05-14 13:00:00

A MAJOR THANK YOU to those of you who left your sweet encouraging comments on my last post. They mean the world to me. I was better after a decent night's sleep. It's no surprise that when I let myself get rundown, my mental attitude suffers. > read more

When Discouragement Reigns Supreme

Published on 2012-05-09 17:38:00

ONE THING I'VE learned through the years is that when I'm tired, I'm more likely to be discouraged. Can anyone relate? > read more

Book Review: The Woman Who Wasn't There

Published on 2012-04-25 11:52:00

I LIVE ON THE WEST coast, > read more

A Few Good Laughs!

Published on 2012-04-20 15:48:00

HI YA'ALL. FIRST, I want to say thank you to all of the wonderful comments on my previous post. It just proved to me what I already knew--that you don't have to be a famous celebrity to be smart. Your advice to your Twenty-Something selves was easily on-par with those of the Oprah Newsletter. > read more

Advice to the Twenty-Somethings

Published on 2012-04-16 13:42:00

THIS MORNING I was reading > read more

Forget the Odds, Just Do It

Published on 2012-04-10 22:40:00

LIFE HAS BEEN SO busy lately. Sometimes I feel like my head is spinning trying to stay current with two blogs, working a full time job, keeping my various writing projects going, not to mention being a wife and mother. And now I'd like to add working in the garden to the repertoire because spring has officially sprung here, finally. > read more

A Walk in the Park

Published on 2012-04-01 10:53:00

THOSE OF YOU who follow my garden blog know we who live in the Pacific Northwest have been forced to endure some awfully fickle weather of late. It's been a roller coaster of snow, rain, wind but very little sunshine. > read more

The Ides of March

Published on 2012-03-15 21:00:00

MY WORKDAY IS ALMOST finished but I wanted to get a post on here before the day is over. Truth is, I just wanted to use this title, The Ides of March, before it was March 16th when it would no longer be accurate. Never mind, I'm weird. I learned something fun the other day when I got my GoodReads e-letter. They've now got a Pinterest account! Yep. You can scroll through whatever genre you like and see all kinds of book covers. There are no descriptions but it's easy enough to enlist Google for t [..] > read more

Tag! I'm IT. Thanks, Mindy!

Published on 2012-03-07 20:59:00

IT IS THANKS TO Mindy that I'm IT. She is such a sweet, fellow-Oregon blogging cyber-friend. How could I say no? If you haven't visited her blog, you should. Mindy is a talented and inspiring young woman. Exceedingly creative, she's a master at everything she touches, from pulling weeds to painting walls. And she's got adorable children too. And she blogs about it all. How cool is that? Being IT is fairly simple actually. I'm to answer the 11 questions she assigned to me (and 11 other bloggers [..] > read more

And the Oscar Goes To...

Published on 2012-02-26 18:39:00

HOOPLA TIME in Hollywood, once again. I don't live anywhere near Hollywood so no hoopla here. Actually, I'm reluctant to admit it but I'm not even sure who is in the running this year. Wait. Come to think of it, I believe Meryl Streep is a nominee once again. There'd probably be even more hoopla if she weren't, right? It would be a different kind of hoopla though. A testy, indignant kind of hoopla. Like, why did The Academy "snub" the Meryl Streep? She's an icon, no doubt about it and if she gra [..] > read more

On Pepsi, Puppies and YouTube

Published on 2012-02-17 12:30:00

I'M SURE IT was intended to convey warm feelings. Family, sunshine, laughter in the backyard, grandma...and puppies! And food. Let's not forget the food. And to drink, why Pepsi, of course. It was 1975. The movie Jaws was all the rage. I had read the book before seeing the movie, trying my hardest to appear bookish like my older sister. But my life, at 15 was fraught with both inner and outer conflicts. I couldn't seem to attain the achievements of my peers. My list of self-imposed goals and asp [..] > read more

Published on 2012-02-09 13:58:00

A FEW POSTS AGO I wrote about using Pinterest to post photos of places I lived and make mention of in my memoir. Since that post, I've added one more "Board" specifically for posting facsimiles of long-ago personal items, like album covers and toys. To those of you who aren't frequenters of Pinterest, you probably can't see the allure. On the other hand, if you are, indeed a Pinterest affectionado, you understand. It's quite therapeutic.A few days ago I was proofreading a chapter and came across [..] > read more

Questions, Questions...

Published on 2012-02-03 11:41:00

I'M CONFUSED. It's not a bad thing necessarily. It just is and I'm used to it now. I'm often confused. But for your health and well-being, I'll narrow my confusions down to just two for now. First, I'm seeing the term, "Indie" flung around a lot these days. It seems that it means different things to different people. (Or maybe it's me.) So, is an "Indie Author" someone who has published a book with an independent publishing company or someone who has "self-published"? Or both? I'm not sure. If y [..] > read more

This & That

Published on 2012-01-23 23:03:00

Image from PinterestLATELY I'VE BEEN joking that I need to clone myself so one of me can get to the stack of books waiting for my undivided attention. I'm thinking there are lots of things I [we?] could get done if there were two of me. No more dirty floors. No more unread blogs. No weeds in the garden... Think of the satisfaction at the end of the day. All ten items crossed off the "to do" list. Done. But the dream is futile. Reality dictates that I prioritize and learn balance. Darn Reality. I [..] > read more

I Love The Internet

Published on 2012-01-16 16:36:00

A FEW YEARS AGO when I was up to my eyeballs in manuscript work, I kept a few reference books nearby to refer to when, for instance, "walk" seemed mundane and a colorful synonym was called for. I still have those books but more and more I'm finding myself referring to Microsoft's thesaurus or sometimes the online Merriam-Webster. As we all know a major perk of the Internet is that it delivers truckloads of information right to our fingertips. In my quest to familiarize myself with the literary [..] > read more

The Bumpy, Baffling Road to Publishing 4

Published on 2012-01-09 12:37:00

AS I READ THE title I just typed, I can't help but think it was kind of stupid. I'm still not a published author so why am I eluding to... and I'm...wait. I am a published author. Duh. I've been honored to have one of my essays selected for an anthology called The Moment I Knew. (See sidebar.) Sometimes I forget how lucky I already am. I have made some serious headway and I'm grateful that I found an editor who believes in me. Thank you Terri. So I should reiterate that the baffling part is not [..] > read more

Don't Stop Believin'

Published on 2011-12-31 16:16:00

Thank you to all of you who sent well-wishes while I was fogged in last week. It actually turned out to be a fairly mild head cold. The fog lifted, I caught my connecting flight and forged a clear-headed Christmas. I hope you all did the same. With the close of 2011, a lot of bloggers are doing their resolutions for 2012. Although I find reading them entertaining I've never been a serious contender for such things. Probably because I'm pathetically proficient at breaking resolutions. So I'll j [..] > read more

'Twas the FOG Before Christmas

Published on 2011-12-21 14:36:00

Well, it finally happened. (No, not that. My manuscript wasn't accepted. I can't quite fall down and worship The Famous New York Literary Agent who has sold it at Auction to Random House and promised to make me a millionaire. That fantasy is still safely sequestered in the back of my cerebrum for times when I need a little mental amusement. But thank you for that gasp of breath you took when you made such a wonderful assumption. I'd hug you if I could.) No. What happened is far less newsworthy [..] > read more

The Bumpy, Baffling Road to Publishing 3

Published on 2011-12-13 23:19:00

Hi and welcome back. Last time, if you recall, I spent several hundred words discussing the agent query potholes littering the road to publishing. Contrary to how it must seem, my goal really isn't to rant about how I've been "wronged." It's really not a "poor me" tale. In fact I find it rather comical. Frustrating but comical. And I know it's just business. Everyone is trying to pay the bills, put food on the table. Even agents. And rejection is just part of the meal. It's the Lima beans. (When [..] > read more

The Bumpy, Baffling Road to Publishing 2

Published on 2011-12-07 22:00:00

In Part 1, I wrote how the lowly wannabe author (me) tries to attract a Literary Agent by crafting a catchy and cool query letter so that said agent will help me get my book published, remember? Now, I’m going to (piss off PETA) and whack the dead horse a few more times, just for emphasis, if you don't mind. In my quest to become a published author, I did my homework. And believe me, I’m no fan of homework. Actually, that’s not true. I like homework now. In fact, I’m addicted to homework [..] > read more