Carrie Callahan

Every morning, I wake up and wonder what the hell it is that I'm doing. I don't have any commitments to keep me on a consistent schedule and all of my motivation has to come from within. I'm still working on finding a daily creative schedule that works for me. Mostly, though, I'm just winging it. I have a list of goals to meet on any particular day and I arrange my time accordingly. (or, sometimes, not so accordingly and I go to bed that night wondering where all of my time went - mostly to Facebook.) One thing that gets me up and going is reading fiction. Reading is so incredibly important for every writer that it's on every how-to and what-to out there on being an effective writer of any kind. When I read, I'm transported away to some other place where more interesting things are happening in a life I can, for a brief time, live. This is where I get my kicks. After an hour or two soaking up the rays in a literary wonderland, I put down the book and com...

I've been busy this month scratching the aforementioned writing itch. I spent June outlining and preparing for Camp NaNoWriMo (more on that  here ), but there is no way to fully prepare for the madness that is attempting a 50,000 word manuscript in one month. I'm currently going for 80,000. Clearly, I am a masochist. Because this lofty goal is not enough for my poor, stress-starved mind, I'm also trying to read George R. R. Martin's  A Dance With Dragons . Whenever I feel that my prose is halted or my motivation is wilted, I reach for the epic fantasy tome. When my genius goes out for pizza, it comes home to find me huddled in a corner over my dying e-reader, desperately trying to plug it in. Reading is important for a writer. Skim any advice article on writing and, somewhere, you will find that old gem: Read. So, I read. Writing is my craft, and reading informs that craft. Perhaps too much. There is a lot to be said about imitation in art - it's the bes...

There's a lot of hubbub out there in the grand digital world these days about the [fate of books] . It seems like readers and writers alike are fearing for what appears to be the inevitable downfall of physical copies. I’m here to tell you that it’s alright. Physical books will never go away. They’ve been part of human history and routine for millenia now, but human beings are a superstitious bunch. With every new technology a new crop of fears pops up to chase us around. e-Books are no exception. I feel as though a lot of those fearing for physical media in general are forgetting that people are, inherently, fetishists. We like symbols and objects-we anthropomorphize them; we attach stories to them. Every used book has [two stories] : the one written in words on the pages, and the [one written in wear on the cover] . Readers still want to [see their favorite author sign their books] . Just like with [vinyl records] people will hold onto books, and we’ve had a lot more time to...