Elena Taylor

Surviving Covid: I’m Doing The Best I Can

Surviving Covid: I’m doing the best I can . . . as a writer, an editor, and an over fifty woman with preexisting conditions. (My doctors never have been able to figure out why my body can’t hold iron . . . and “undiagnosed tachycardia” really is a diagnosis, how’s that for a kick in […]

New Normal: 5 Reasons to Stop Using That Term

Thoughts on “New Normal” New Normal is an expression getting bandied about quite a bit these days, and it always sets my teeth on edge. Language is a powerful force and how we use it changes our perceptions of the world we live in. I’m not an epidemiologist nor a economist nor a sociologist, but […]

We Write Through: Free Livecast Writing Workshops

We Write Through We Write Through is a once-a-week, free, livecast writing workshop available to writers everywhere regardless of experience or publishing history. The ongoing pandemic has created a lot of challenges for all of us in our daily lives. I know it has impacted my ability to focus and tested my ability to stay […]

Family Secrets, Neuroscience, and Murder

Family Secrets . . . Find out how Joanna Schaffhausen combines family secrets, neuroscience, and murder in her trio of novels, the most recent out this week from Minotaur Press! Love to know what inspires writers? Don’t miss my post on how Nikola Tesla inspired Colleen Winter. Click the link here. The Author Joanna Schaffhausen […]

Complications on a Sunday Morning

Complications on a Sunday Morning . . . You wake, but it’s still dark outside. You lie in your bed, not ready to put your feet on the floor. You listen, but the rain has finally stopped. Thirty days and thirty nights it has poured down. Acres of ponds have sprung up in the middle […]

Five Thoughts on Writing and Rewriting

Five Thoughts on Writing I have a lot of thoughts on writing. But that doesn’t mean I’m always conscious of my own process. Sometimes the best thing I can do to get motivated with my own writing is to teach other people writing techniques. EPIC Group Writers in Edmonds, Washington, recently hosted one of my […]

Seven Motivations to Keep Writing in Winter

Motivations to keep writing can be a challenge in winter Motivations to keep writing during the winter in the Northern Hemisphere can be tricky. The  cold, winter weather can drive us indoors, leading to hibernation and binge watching our latest Netflix obsession. (Currently mine is Unforgotten on Masterpiece) That can be a good way to […]

Five Inventions We Were Promised By 2020

Five Inventions We Were Promised By 2020 . . . but probably didn’t need anyway . . . I’m sitting here in January 2020, thinking about what inventions I expected by now. I can remember when 1999 felt like a very . . . very . . . long way off. Now 1999 feels like […]

A Writer’s Life and The Death of My Father

A Writer’s Life As we move from one year to another, people often reflect on events of the last twelve months. It has been a strange and busy year for me. I signed with a new agent and found a home with a new publisher. I’m launching a brand new series in April. And in […]

Work/Life Balance For Artists: Five Tips

The Work/Life balance is tricky under the best of circumstances. But, balancing “work” and “life” as an artist can be even more challenging than for those with a 9-to-5 conventional job. First, there are the added stresses of freelancing. Paychecks are unreliable. Benefits are non-existent. And the thought of saying “no” to a gig in […]

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