Melissa Maygrove

A couple of people have contacted me lately and said they are not getting email notifications of new blog posts from my blog.  If you are following this blog by email, would you please let me know whether or not you are getting the notifications?  You can comment below, use my contact form , or send me a private email - your choice. If you know of a solution to this problem, I'd love to hear from you, too. Thank you.  

What the — ? Button up that trench coat, buddy. That's not what I meant! We're going to have some writer/blogger fun with a twist on flash fiction. I did this a while back and it went over well, so I'm doing it again. (If you weren't around for the original post, here's the link .) You can make this as funny and odd or as every-day-plain as you want. Use a random name generator to come up with a few character names (here's another one with different options), and then use a random sentence generator to get your creative juices flowing. Click the button until you have a few sentences you think you can use.  Note: These random sentences can be very strange, so you will probably need to tweak them and add some of your own.   When preparing your post , list your sentences as they originally appeared and list your names, then write a short piece of flash fiction using the names as your characters and the sentences as your inspirati...

If English usage flusters you, you're in the right place. :) Here's your weekly dose of GPM... Faze vs Phase Faze (verb) means to disturb or fluster. The news didn't faze him . Phase (n.) is a stage in a process — the phases of the moon . Rap vs. Wrapped vs Rapt Rap (n. or verb) means to tap or strike sharply; a brisk strike or knock. Stop rapping on the door . You'll wake the baby . Wrapped (verb) refers to being enclosed in something. Sally wrapped the package in colorful paper . Rapt (adj.) means deeply engrossed; captivated. The children watched the magician with rapt attention . ### For a linked list of all the GPM posts, click here . As always, Thanks for stopping by. :)

Apparently I’m popular. Or an easy mark. I haven’t decided which. LOL I’ve been tagged twice this month with... ...once by Tina DC Hayes, author at large , and again by Charlie Holmberg over at Myself As Written . Thank you, ladies! The rules are: 1. Display the award, proudly, on your blog. 2. Thank the person who nominated you and link back to them. 3. State 7 things about yourself. 4. Tag up to 15 other bloggers and link to them. Great! Another opportunity to bore my visitors to tears and drive them away. Have you figured out yet I’m in a goofy, snarky mood? Seven things about me: (You can skip this part. I won't call you on it, I swear.)

This is the first meeting of M. L. Swift’s Progressive Book Club. Basically, participants sign up on the Linky list, read the designated book, and post their thoughts the third Wednesday of the month. Then we visit other participants and discuss our reviews.  For more info about the group, click here . This month, we're discussing Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott, a popular book among writers. First I'll give you the description, then follow that with my review. "Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother's shoulde...

Hearty vs Hardy Yikes. Gotta watch these two...   Hearty means cordial, jovial, exuberant, forceful, substantial— a hearty laugh; a hearty meal . Hardy means sturdy, strong, bold, daring— a hardy group of men . Heal vs Heel Heal (verb) means to restore health; to cure. Heel  means (n.) the back of the foot or (verb) to follow at one's heels. A doctor heals ; a dog heels . Currant vs Current A currant is a small, seedless raisin. Current means (adj.) belonging to the present; prevalent; customary— the current fad —or (n.) the flow of a body of water. Don't get caught in the river's current . ### As always, thanks for visiting. :)  

I know you guys are probably cursing me for flooding your inbox with posts this week, but I'm gonna throw in one more. I joined the dojo for NiNoWriMo (not to be confused with NaNo) for the month of February. I set a goal for myself of 1500 words a week, and —not only have I made my goal two weeks in a row—I've made the leaderboard both times, too.   That gives me the right to display this badge. *does happy dance* I'm glad I joined the dojo . The accountability combined with the fact I'm in the home stretch of the first draft of my WIP has given me the motivation I need to (finally!) make good, consistent progress.  Need a kick in the drafting, revision or querying pants? Check them out. :) 

Al Diaz over at Father Dragon Writes gave me the Liebster Award. Thanks, Al! If you haven't checked out his blog, you should. He's very inspiring. When I first found out I'd been tagged, I considered simply mentioning Al and linking back to an old award; but it's been a while since I got one of these and I liked his questions. I'm going to be a good sport and play. :)

Yep. You read right. And, no, it's not a play on words. Today I'm posting a recipe for Chicken & Dumplings — a good, hot meal for a cold day. This feeds a family of 4 to 6. What you'll need: A rotisserie chicken from the local market (cooked) 2 cans of cheap, plain refrigerator biscuits (more if they're small) A large soup or spaghetti pot with lid (mine's an 8-qt) Water Salt & Pepper Hint: I like to buy my chicken in the afternoon and let it sit out and cool a bit before I prepare supper, but you can refrigerate overnight if needed. Directions: Fill your soup pot about 1/2 full with water and set to boil. While you're waiting for that to heat, remove all usable meat from chicken, break into bite-size pieces, and set aside in a bowl.

Sorry if I flood your inbox this week with extra posts, but I wanted to let you know about a guest post I'm doing. February is reader month over at NALitChat blog, and they posted an article I wrote. You can see it here . They've also asked me to host #NALitChat this week. We chat on Twitter every Thursday evening at 9:00 PM EST using the afore-mentioned hashtag.

Don't let word usage dominate you. Get the upper hand! Envious vs Jealous   Someone who's envious  feels discontent due to coveting another person's wealth, success, etc. Someone who's jealous resents the other person for having these things.

This is my Insecure Writers Support Group post for February.   IWSG is the brainchild of Alex J. Cavanaugh. It's a monthly bloghop that offers a safe haven for writers to express their feelings and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. It's also a venue for offering support, both in the form of comments and positive posts . Writers of all kinds are welcome.  We 'meet' the first Wednesday of every month. If you're interested in learning more, click on the link above. And don't be intimidated by the size of the group. We're not expected to visit everyone on the list. The last two months, my posts were encouraging and long.  This month, it's going to be short and soul-baring.  

This is my contribution to Nick Wilford's bloghop benefit ing his son. ( GPM will be back next week. ) These 500-word-or-less posts will be compiled into an anthology. If you'd like to know more, click here . For Nick's entry and a linked list to all the others, go here . True Colors I’ve faced my share of adversity, but I wasn’t sure what to write. Then I looked up the word in the dictionary. The sample sentence it gave went something like this: