Sydney Avey
Dynamic Woman — Changing Times
Author Readings: Need courage? Don a costume!
At a recent author reading, stepping into Nellie’s persona freed me to be more expressive. I felt like a kid in a Halloween costume emboldened to ask for candy from complete strangers! It was so much easier for me as Nellie to ask for an audience’s attention for her story than for me as an author to ask for attention for my book.
Note to Self About Distractions
We live in an age of distractions. Like germs in the air we breathe, we can tolerate few disturbances with no ill effect. But the constant battle for our attention can trigger an I-just-don’t-care-anymore numbness that leads to anxiety, apathy, and burnout.
Why a Writers Conference Might Work for You
If you have a story to tell, you might want to consider attending a writers’ conference. Not everyone wants to write or publish their stories, but if you dream of seeing your byline on a story in a magazine or holding your hot-off-the-presses book with your name printed across a knockout cover, what should you do?
Use Your Imagination, Part 3
What enchants you and fires your imagination? What seems beyond your reach? Read books that take you places you are curious to go, intriguing physical landscapes and rocky emotional terrain.
Use Your Imagination, Part 2
Good fiction prompts readers to use their imaginations to create their own voices for characters. Avid readers are independent folk who have their own ideas about a character’s motivations. While the most entertaining books satisfy our desire for a happy ending, the best books touch our hearts because they ring true.
Use Your Imagination, Part 1
Use your imagination, our parents would tell us kids when we struggled to understand something or solve a problem. Funny, we never had to ask them how to use our imaginations. We instinctively knew how to go there.
Book Review: Up the Hill To Home
The sweep of history makes us glad of progress in some areas (most notably, medicine and opportunities for women to use their educations) and sad for the losses growth has wrought. We might well mourn the passing of intimate family and community ties that a slower pace of life fostered.
Fish Fossil Swirl: Living in the disruptive moments
I try to think of myself as a gypsy who travels light, carries only the essentials, and maintains the same disciplined routine wherever. But sometimes you have to live in the disruptive moments that life hands you.
Book Review: The Longest Trail
The Longest Trail by Roni McFadden tells a rites-of-passage story about a troubled young girl and the mentor who nurtures her love of horses and helps her grow into a strong, resilient woman.