Category: writing

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My Values – Because I Can’t Control How People (Mis)Interpret My Work

By Mary | by Mary

I’ve been blogging steadily since 2006, writing publicly in other venues long before that, and creating art since I was a child. I often write about complex topics that have multiple viewpoints. No matter how carefully I present my thoughts on a subject, there’s a likelihood that people will misinterpret what I write or create. My first experience with this was with a piece of art, a reversible weaving I had done in pale green…

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history pragmatic historian writing

Leaving Behind a Written Legacy

By Mary | by Mary

I finished reading a novel called “When You Read This” by Mary Adkins last night. I bought it at Savers thrift store and was attracted to it by the cover and inside flap text. The general gist of the story is that a woman named Iris has died of cancer and has left behind a blog that she wants her boss to publish as a book. The book is written as a series of Iris’s…

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Writing in My Sleep

By Mary | by Mary

Royel M. Johnson posted an interesting question on Twitter recently. I shared the tweet with a reply: “Yes, I definitely write in my sleep.” A quick, throwaway tweet. Or so I thought. A friend of mine suggested I write a blog post about it, so here we are, after a week of dream-writing. As soon as the suggestion was made, my sleeping brain went into overdrive and presented several vivid dreams with writing elements in…

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Encourage People to Vote By Writing Letters

By Mary | by Mary

Democracy in the United States is severely under attack from both inside and outside forces. Given this, it is up to those of us wanting to preserve democracy to speak out and take action. I have been more politically vocal during the past 3-4 years than in any other time in my life. I’ve nudged politicians who are supposed to be representing all of us rather than dividing us. I’ve encouraged people to take part…

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Becoming a Writer

By Mary | by Mary

Several of John Scalzi’s essays/blog posts in his book “Don’t Live for Your Obituary” are sticking with me such that I want to bounce off them with my own blog posts. One such post is called “Imposter Syndrome, or Not” (page 395-401 in the book, dated January 30, 2016 on his Whatever blog). Scalzi opens the post discussing how so many writers suffer from Imposter Syndrome, the feeling that they’re just not good enough at…

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