Linda K Sienkiewicz

Writing life, line by line

How Many Flaming Chainsaws Make a Novel?

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Ever wonder what makes a book catch fire? What makes a book impossible to put down? Flaming Chainsaws I found this gem of an essay on storytelling with an unlikely title,  The Dance of the Flaming Chainsaws, by Benjamin Percy and wanted to pass it along to my readers. Percy wanted to understand how The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which is 672 pages long, was so compulsively … [Read more...]

Reliable babysitter, sort of

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At Fourteen Like a good babysitter, I arrived on time, I put the kids to bed when I was supposed to, and as a bonus, I would wash dishes. I liked kids. I didn't yell at them or slap them in the face, like one sitter did to me when I told her, jokingly, that the cookies she brought were "crummy," meaning crumbly. I thought it was a clever play on words. Obviously she was an idiot. … [Read more...]

A Little Too Quiet

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"Libraries aren’t as quiet as they used to be. A Little Too Quiet is a podcast for library lovers and the library curious. Book chatter with librarians, community perspectives and author interviews" Ferndale Library's Podcast: I had the honor of being interviewed by Jeff Milo for the Ferndale Library's podcast, A Little Too Quiet. We talked about the writing life, art and … [Read more...]

Devil’s Food Cake and White Lies

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  Those nasty box cakes My mother had an electric mixer with a rotating bowl that blended her cakes into creamy smoothness, and she always let me lick the bowl clean. All that yummy raw batter *shudder* She had nothing but contempt for box cakes: "Mrs. So-and-So made one of those cakes from a box for the party. It tasted terrible." I asked her what terrible tasted … [Read more...]