Linda K Sienkiewicz

Writing life, line by line

Brief History of a Forty-Year Long Marriage

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The Luv Pub It sounds like a cliche: I met my husband after last call in the Brown Derby Luv Pub in Independence, OH, where people danced on a lighted disco floor to a live "house band." There might have even been a mirror ball. I was just twenty years old, drinking with a fake ID, and working as a waitress in the upscale Chinese restaurant Pan Asia, while going to art school. He was pounding … [Read more...]

Lawn Kitsch

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My Neighborhood I spotted this donkey, deer family, lighthouse, gazing ball, and Dutch children in one front yard in a section of houses built in the fifties. The children are supposed to be smooching, but the homeowner separated them. I guess there's no kissing on the lawn. I imagine the kitchen in this house has pink or avocado green appliances and a formica table with metal chairs and … [Read more...]

Why Rush to Publish?

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You wrote a book! You want it published! Now! Congratulations! I've felt that same excitement. However, I urge you to resist that impulse to self-publish right away. I know you're excited and, trust me, I know time is the downside of traditional publishing. It can take years. First you have to query agents. That can take a year or more of submitting your … [Read more...]

Dialogue Tags – Don’t Get Crazy

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Nancy Pontificated I'll never forget the time a line of dialogue in a Nancy Drew book that ended ...Nancy pontificated. I laughed out loud. Everyone knows Nancy Drew has strong opinions. She's always pontificating! Why would the author need to interject herself into the dialogue with such a dialogue tag as pontificated?! Said would have easily done the job, and I could have continued reading … [Read more...]

What, Why, How: Nancy Owen Nelson

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WHAT?  For years I wrote poetry here and there, publishing one or two in journals and anthologies. My main focus was academic writing, so I spent much of my time in research. In 1995, I was asked to edit a collection of essays by women in the personal voice, called “feminist literary criticism.” The resulting book, Private Voices, Public Lives: Women Speak on the Literary Life (UNT Press, … [Read more...]