Writing Unleashed with Laura M. Harkins

Catching an Employer's Eye in 150 Characters or Less A few months ago I applied for a writing job, that I subsequently did not get, that required me to sell myself in 150 characters or less. In this fast past world where publishers and bloggers format their articles to fit on a cell phone screen or people discuss their lives, adventures, and mindless dribbles in 140 characters, I wasn't surprised.  A challenge nonetheless… So, I tried to stay with the food theme of my cover letter, more or less because I couldn't think of another angle at the time. It came out all right. Here's what I submitted: Combine an infectious laugh, creativity, and self-motivated work ethic in a large bowl. Pour into any sized work environment. Watch me flourish. My best attempt to deliver a succinct list of my most important qualities and abilities along with showcasing my writing ability. I look at it now and see a dozen ways to improve it. Woulda, co...

Over at Tor.com  Stubby the Rocket talks about The Story Museum's newest exhibit : photographs of British writers and storytellers dressing up as their favorite children's lit characters. Neil Gaiman chose Badger from The Wind in the Willows . What a fun idea! I always loved Ottie and the Star by Laura Jean Allen. An adventurous little fellow who meets all kinds of new sea animals on his journey to find the star. I still have the book report I wrote in first grade. So, if I had the chance to dress up as my favorite children's lit character, I believe it would be Ottie. A close second would be Charlotte  Scarlet Monster from a book whose name eludes me   Scarlet Monster Lives Here by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat and illustrated by Dennis Kendrick, but is hiding  I found in a box somewhere in my parent's attic. Which character from your childhood would you dress up as?

It's been well over a year, 16 months to be exact, since I entertained the blogging world with my dazzling prose (hahahah!). Life. What a pain in the ass. She played with me like a cat with it's prey, setting off every one of my triggers. Grasped between her teeth, I went limp. I woke up on the ground. My face scraped up with pebbles imbedded in the cuts. Looking up, I saw her  standing above me, pointing her well-manicured finger in my face while her shoulders bounced with laughter. She takes pleasure in my pain. This past year, in particular, has been incredibly challenging. I know there's more strength hidden inside me. And it's time to look inward and recharge. During my hiatus, I kept busy reading fiction, reading craft books to improve my writing, and writing when my schedule and procrastination allowed. I burned sage to shoo away all the negative energy surrounding me and created some new goal: finishing my current WIP (stuck at Chapter 9) and researc...

Source I needed something different to do than watch T.V. when I came home from work tonight, so I scoured the Internet for literary news. Tom Hanks came up. Surprisingly. He did a poetry slam on 'Late Night with Jimmy Fallon'. Hilarious! It brings me back to pizza Friday's and TGIF with my parents and little sister in the glorious 90's. I admit I cringe whenever I catch a clip of Full House, but I loved it at the time. Bless my parents for sitting through those episodes. Source Tom's bit also reminded me a little of Mike Myer's in So I Married An Axe Murderer with his Woman poem. What a great movie! The links are below. Enjoy! Tom Hanks Mike Myers

As a novice writer, I spend every moment buried in novels that evoke just about every emotion from me. My favorite novels, besides mysteries, are literary fiction by authors like Jhumpa Lahiri and Barbara Kingsolver, who sit at the top of my list of all-time favorites. Whenever I read one of Barbara Kingsolver’s novels it always feels as though she’s speaking directly to me. It feels silly to say that I admire her characters and look to them for inspiration, but they’re the ones I connect to the most. Not real people. (Perhaps that’s why writing feels so natural to me.) I see bits of me mirrored in her characters Taylor ( The Bean Trees ) and Codi/Cosima ( Animal Dreams ). Their stories aren’t identical to mine. I just know exactly how it feels to run away in search of something, looking for a place to belong. Their dilemmas and life questions push away my loneliness and fill me with hope that if they could make it through tough times so can I. Barbara also keeps ...

The silliness is spilling out of me today. I've got my Dexter's Laboratory t-shirt on and exciting ideas for my WIP skipping around my mind making me caffeine-jittery to the point I'm knocking things over in my apartment. Granted, the inability to stand up on my two feet is nothing new, I can barely contain the the surge of passion. So, before I destroy everything I own, I thought I would sit down and share something I stumbled across on Tor.com (I'm a huge fan of the sci-fi website) and, then, get to writing. Last week, I wrote about serialized fiction and whether it had a place in our literary world anymore on the Bucks County Writers' Group blog. Then, I came across the first few chapters of Catherynne M. Valente's middle grade novel The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There . Tor.com serialized the first 5 chapters of the sequel to Valente's first Fairyland book, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making . ...

Do we really need an excuse to have fun with books? I think not.  From what I understand, this unofficial game of International Book Week, possibly started on Google+, asks you to grab the closest book to you, open to page 52, and post the fifth sentence on the page. Do not include the title.  "There's no harm in flirting." Hint. It's one of these.  Post your fifth sentence in the comments below!