Reading with Dina

                                                                    Photo by Fern M. Lomibao on Unsplash For this week's blog, I want to continue writing about the writing process. Much of writing is about discipline.  I know that is often said-- but it really is.  Whatever big idea a person has-- building a house, building a city, solving a world problem, writing a book-- requires vision and discipline. Writing a book-- in my case, a novel, can take years.  My novels tend to be 60,000 to 80,000 words requiring multiple drafts. Some authors are able to write a book in one year or even just a few months.  There are many factors that impact that.  One of the major ones is time.   I do not have a spouse that brings in a pay check large enough for me to not have a traditional job and focu...

                                                     Photo by Alex Jones on Unsplash As promised, in this blog, we will be reading and discussing great literature and I will be sharing aspects of being a writer in the 21st century.   One of the most important aspects of creating a novel or short story is the development of interesting characters.  Where exactly does this come from? I was thinking about this as I looked at images on Unsplash-- one of my favorite places to search for images.  I love working with my hands-- woodwork, making handmade cards and ceramics.  I think this image here captures the process I use to create my characters.  I start with clay... the clay is like the heart of the character or some distinctive aspect of them.  In my short story collection,  Peter's Moonlight Photography and Other S...

    I am getting ready to indie publish my novella, Mary's Wings , this summer.  I  have decided that with the release of Mary's Wings , I will be selecting 6-10 novellas for us to read and review.  I am debating whether to work from a list of a site I like of top novellas or select my own.  I will be going to the library next weekend and will let you know then!       In case the difference between a novella and a novel is confusing, the main difference is word count,  Novellas tend to be under 40,000 words (mine is 32,000) while novels tend to be anywhere from 60,000 to 80,000 with most you see on the market being around 80,000.  Now, this is for literary fiction-- the area I am most familiar with.          As I gear up, I wanted to go ahead and begin sharing and discussing books I admire with you.  I will be saving the novellas for this summer but will go ahead and introduce two novels for June a...