Linda K Sienkiewicz

Writing life, line by line

When a Word Makes You Notice the Writer

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I discovered a book club group discussion on Facebook about the phrases and words readers notice, and how those words then seem to appear in every book. It made me realize that readers are pattern detectors. They notice repetition and choices that authors themselves may not realize they’re making. In this way, it isn’t always the plot, the characters, or the pacing that pulls a reader out of a … [Read more...]

When Kacey Musgraves accidentally wrote the theme song for my novel’s heroine

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Serenity's Anthem: Kacey Musgraves' "Dry Spell" Writers believe we make deliberate choices about our characters, but then a song comes on the radio and we suddenly recognize something we'd written without fully understanding it. The other day I heard Kacey Musgraves' "Dry Spell" and nearly drove off the road. Serenity, the heroine of Love and Other Incurable Ailments, could have penned every … [Read more...]

Instagram thinks I’m a mystic. I’m really a Sneaker Diva.

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Fashion in a Box: Instagram must think I need help. Not help-help, but fashion help. Dozens of styling apps fill my feed with promises to transform me into my best-dressed self or to reveal my feminine archetype. No one ever asks if I'd rather be Woman Who Owns Seven Pairs of Sneakers. No one ever asks if I'm Woman Mourning the End of JoAnn Fabric. Identify your archetype and buy more … [Read more...]

My 5 Questionable Superpowers and How They Mirror my Fictional Heroine

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None of them involve a cape! I may not have the power to fly or read minds, but I’ve developed a few, strange, human superpowers over the years that can also be seen as oddly comforting when you reframe them as a positive. After I wrote Love and Other Incurable Ailments, I slowly realized I hadn't invented the quirks of the main character Serenity. I gave her a few of my own. Maybe being … [Read more...]

Flattened, Twisted, and Still Alive: The English Language

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The Beauty of a Battered Language: Finley Peter Dunne (1867 – 1936) once quipped, “When we Americans are done with the English language it will look as if it had been run over by a musical comedy.” Nearly a century later, we’re still joyriding over words, backing up, running them down, and taking them for new spins. That's the charm of language. It evolves, adapts, reinvents itself with … [Read more...]