Survival Skill #2: Filleting A Fish
Growing up in northern Minnesota, you learn how to fish. When I was young, my dad bought me a fishing rod and reel, set up a five-gallon bucket in the middle of our yard, and had me practice my casting. […]
author kate bitters
Survival Skill #1: Winter Camping
As part of the research for my Middle Grade work-in-progress, I’m learning as many survival skills as I can. My goal is to learn one skill per month in 2019. So far so…meh. To be frank, this past month didn’t […]
You Haven’t Outgrown Your Imagination
“My imagination isn’t what it used to be.” Amanda and I are standing around a kitchen island, catching up at a friend’s winter party. Most of the guests know each other through a local writing group, so talk often turns […]
Phone-Free Concert, Being Present, & Writing
Below me, a sea of humans jostle for space, chat, sip on amber-tinted beverages. They spread across a trough-like expanse, facing an enormous stage with several thirty-foot high screens stretching across it. There are 8,000 of us. I’m standing against […]
The emotional journey of writing someone else’s memoir
A few seconds of silences stretched between us as we stepped out the door and began walking down the long, white hallway. Past a few doors decorated with Easter wreaths. Past the dining hall which informed me that large print […]
Little Fires Everywhere Beautifully Breaks Every Writing Rule
When I finished reading Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, I felt the air leave my lungs and I wondered if I’d been holding my breath the whole time. That’s the effect of this book. It’s pure magic—winding its way […]
Go to Panama. Give stray dog a cracker. Make BFF.
He’s been one of my closest friends for nearly eight years. When I landed on Isla Bastimentos off the coast of Panama, I was nervous. It was the start of a six-month commitment to study an alternative energy project […]
Writers: Dare to feel life deeply
Memorable writing is provocative writing. It challenges our thinking; it creates emotional swells. Memorable writing puts us in a place and allows us to see, smell, touch, taste the surroundings. We’re there. We’re feeling the feels. We’re inside the […]
Let’s talk about character names.
I recently finished reading a book in which a large number of the character names began with the letter K. There was Kevin, Katrina, Karl, Kenneth. My head reeled as I worked my way through the pages. “Who is doing […]
The Woman in Green [Story #25]
I’m continuing with my character exposes for my yet-to-be-written YA novel. This one plays off of the last post. I am an ancient being. Big as the stars and the gaps between them. Bigger than the data flowing through supercomputers—machines […]