Category writing
Q&A Part 2
Several years ago, I did a Q&A with the wonderful Women and Words (sadly “on hiatus”). A lot of the answers are still good, and I’ve updated some others. Here’s Elaine! Part 2 Tell us about your biggest guilty pleasure. For example, do you sit naked in your pantry in the middle of the night […]
A Question of Character
There’s much discussion among writer about how to craft characters and reader questions about how writers come up with their characters. Are they based on real people? I’m surprised at the number of writers who admit they are. I can’t imagine that. I mean, lately when I’m deep in the writing and I’m trying to […]
So, Back to Writing
I’m reading a very cool book, In Search of the Canary Tree, by Lauren E. Oakes. It’s early yet, and in it she’s just starting her Ph.D. research project analyzing yellow-cedar forests on an island in the Alexander Archipelago of southeast Alaska, near Sitka. What does this have to do with writing? I’m enthralled by […]
Writing Prompt: Table
I haven’t posted one of these in a while. Twice a month, I get together with some other writers. We pull a prompt from an envelope and write for 30 minutes, then read to each other and chat. Sometimes I have to cogitate before coming up with something to write. Not this time. I plunged […]
Worldbuilding
Each morning, when the weather is nice, I sit on my porch and eat my snack while my second cup of coffee perks. It’s now late June. The yard looks lush and at peak greenery. The mountain laurel are flowering—white and pink snowballs covering the bushes. The smaller sheep laurel dots the surrounding green with […]
There’s No Birding in Space
At heart I’m a nature girl, so it was hard to write a novel that takes place mostly on a space ship. In Endurance, Captain Lyn Randall even laments about wanting to hear bird song and feel the wind. It’s summer now here in New England and the days are long. I’ll wake up at […]
Endurance Excerpt #2
If you like what you see, Endurance is now available for pre-orders of ebooks on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Endurance-Elaine-Burnes-ebook/dp/B0B353S9RN But Amazon is only the beginning. The ebook will be available through the usual outlets as well as libraries (including Hoopla and Overdrive). Print books will be available through Amazon and wherever sold through Ingram. That means Bookshop, […]
I’m Still Here
Yes, it’s been more than a year since I posted. I’ve no idea why and realize readers might think I succumbed to Covid or something else dreadful. I was on a pretty good roll, posting my fevered writing prompts. They are a lot of fun and continue, but I haven’t felt compelled to share any […]
Writing Prompt: Dependence
The prompt was random, with 30 minutes to write this time, so here’s my take on it. Not fiction this week. Dependence I knew when I decided to move to a rural town with fewer than a thousand residents that I’d be entering a new world of dependencies. Most people think of rural folk as […]
Elaine Burnes 