by Clarissa | Jan 23, 2019 | writing |
Have you ever held onto a secret you’ve been dying to share, and then finally…you can? For the last few weeks I’ve been helping Angela and Becca at Writers Helping Writers keep a BIG secret…what the next book in their thesaurus series will be....
by Clarissa | Jan 21, 2019 | personal |
This is me from about ten years ago, more or less. Dressed as Pippi Longstocking for some reason. All day no-one could keep a straight face when they looked at me. And yes, it was a work day. I had to be careful not to turn my head too quickly, in case I poked anyone...
by Clarissa | Jan 14, 2019 | dutch life, family |
One of the joys of having children who speak two languages is watching them learn them both. Hearing them talk to each other in a mishmash of them. Helping them learn words that they only know in the other language. That they can teach you words that you...
by Clarissa | Jan 7, 2019 | writing
So, a new year has just started, and it’s time to look back over what I’ve achieved with my short stories. I published four, two weeks apart between Thanksgiving and New Year. Publicity and promotion is hard. Most of the time I felt like I was shouting...
by Clarissa | Jan 3, 2019 | writing |
One of the most useful questions to a writer is the question, “what if”. What if the world was green, or vampires were real, or you could travel through time. The whole of fiction is based on asking how things would work if the way the world works was...
by Clarissa | Dec 31, 2018 | personal, writing
My goals for 2018 were: focus on writing improve daily routines look after me talk to friends My writing has gone well, although I haven’t hit the target of 1000 words a day over the year, I have written more than I did last year. I’ve also edited a series...
by Clarissa | Dec 28, 2018 | Self publishing, writing |
Just writing a piece of novel-length prose is hard enough, but then you have to polish it and revise it to make it even better. The first draft of a story is often referred to as a vomit draft – just writing it all down as fast as you can to get it out. And then...
by Clarissa | Dec 24, 2018 | family, personal |
Here is my annual list of what we have done to celebrate Sinterklaas, Advent and Christmas. This year we struggled, as now both children are at school and have after-school activities there is less time to fit in an extra activity. So while we did do them all, some...
by Clarissa | Dec 20, 2018 | food, writing |
One of the things I enjoy doing is cooking. I love baking, and making meals from scratch. My Mum us an awesome cook, and growing up we were privileged to have good quality and varied food, which is something I emulate in my family. But I never really started cooking...
by Clarissa | Dec 17, 2018 | personal |
I have been making an effort this year to keep track of what I have been reading. Anyone who knows me knows that I love books and can often be found hiding somewhere with my nose in a book. Increasingly that is a digital book on my phone, which makes it more difficult...
