Linda K Sienkiewicz

Writing life, line by line

The Books That Taught Me How to Write a Character Like Serenity

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Reading my Way into Love and Other Incurable Ailments: Stories about neurodivergent characters have fascinated me for years, long before Love and Other Incurable Ailments was even a glimmer of an idea. Maybe because writers don’t always get these characters right, I notice when they do. I pay attention to the way an anxious mind is portrayed, to the contradictions and quirks, to the things … [Read more...]

Apparently, I’m manifesting

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I want to thank Soph Newman | The Ex Good Girl, the marvelous diva behind The Good Girls Guide to Manifestation on Substack, who set me on this path. A childhood of manifesting Before I tell you what I’m currently manifesting, you should probably know that I've been doing this since childhood, only I didn’t know it. As a girl, I bargained with the universe: if I could walk a whole block … [Read more...]

Oversharing for Fun and Connection: Weird Facts Edition

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Weird facts I probably shouldn't share When my mother took me to the library, I’d sneak off to the poetry section to look for sexual metaphors in Victorian verse. The first time I read a poem in public, my mouth was so dry that my lips stuck to my teeth, and my hand shook so violently that I couldn’t bring a glass of water to my lips to take a drink. I met my husband after last call in … [Read more...]

On Being Contrary in PT: No way am I doing that

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I once asked my husband if he thought I was contrary. “What, are you kidding?” he said. When I think about it, my mother could be quite contrary, too. She was generous and loving, but she did not like being told what to do. I remember when she was in her nineties and living in assisted living. She ended up in the hospital with compression fractures of the spine and came home with a … [Read more...]

The John B. Sails: From Bahamian Folk Song to Beach Boys Classic

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All in a day of doing writer's research What writer hasn't fallen down a rabbit hole of research? This one started innocently with song lyrics from Sloop John B, used in my novel Love and Other Incurable Ailments, a story set in the fishing village of Ocracoke. A fellow writer cautioned me that I might need permission to use the lyrics, supposedly from The Beach Boys. Many a writer has … [Read more...]