Posts by Lynn Slaughter
Wrestling Coach Wisdom
The other night, I attended a ceremony honoring a neighboring city’s eighth grade student wrestlers, including my grandson. The veteran high school coach was the guest speaker and made a big pitch to the students to enroll in the local high school and continue wrestling. He trotted out seniors from his team who’d excelled…
Read MoreI Love Being Wrong: Book Signing Bliss
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZoJ5OKmEJY Most authors can tell you stories about their less than successful efforts at doing book signings. In fact, a Sisters in Crime friend from our local chapter, Derby Rotten Scoundrels, shared this hysterical YouTube posting by Parnell Hall about his experiences. So, when Deb Shapiro, the terrific publicist hired by Page Street,…
Read MoreActs of Love
I once read a story about a writer who so detested his wife that he plotted to kill her. Since she was a devoted partner who delighted in cooking him gourmet meals, this seemed surprising. Until the author revealed late in the story that there was one thing the wife had never done. She’d never…
Read MoreLiving Life Vicariously
As parents, we’re not supposed to live our lives vicariously through our adult children. We’re advised to focus on living our own lives and following our own dreams. But sometimes, I’ve decided it’s A-okay to savor life’s joys vicariously. Take this past Monday, for example. Our beautiful daughter-in-law, now in her mid-thirties, waited anxiously all…
Read MoreThere's Never a Good Time to Write
The young woman standing next to me in the coffee line at church was a gifted writer. She’d done a reading of her poetry several months before, and I’d been blown away by the lyricism and elegance of her work. At the reading, she’d talked about how much she was enjoying getting back to…
Read MoreYou Never Know Until You Try
I’m getting so excited about the release of my second YA novel, It Should Have Been You. The official release date, January 30, is less than four weeks away! Who knew that this was the path my life would take? If you had told me in my dancing days that I would ever write a…
Read MoreHoliday Letters Make Terrible Fiction
Our friends and family are far flung, so every year, I make a special effort to do a holiday newsletter and send pictures of our grandkids. This year, we’ve had wonderful things in our family to celebrate—a new grandbaby on the way, one of our sons being named head basketball coach at the high school…
Read MoreReal Men Eat Quiche– and Sometimes They Cry
The year our son Eddie was in third grade, I was on the dance faculty at the University of Oklahoma, while my husband held down the home front. Bruce Feirstein’s satirical Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche was a best seller at the time. Ed thought the title was very funny, especially since he dashed home…
Read MoreWriters: We're a Supportive Group!
When one of my dear writing friends, Ellen Birkett Morris, got an agent the other day, I think I was almost as excited as she was. Despite being an award-winning short story writer with an outstanding reputation, it wasn’t easy to find an agent for her first novel. I can definitely relate! Yet, in the…
Read MoreEnd-of-Semester Blues
It’s the last week of the semester, and my college students stare at me bleary-eyed. Loaded down with upcoming exams and final projects, sleep is definitely high on their wish list for the holiday break. “I just want it to be over,” one of my students told me. “I am so freakin’ tired!” …
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