Mirka Muse

  ON THIS DATE, MARCH 10 TH , IN 1876 … From that first ever telephone call by Alexander Graham Bell and to this day, the world would neve...

 The above goes under the caption “BEST ADVICE I EVER GOT.”   Life is full of Nos.   First, there are your parents, who are doing th...

  “Bread is the staff of life.” This English idiom, coined in the 17 th century, continues to haunt writers of fiction.   No one would ...

  Some things, which the rationalists call “coincidences,” will spook those of us who think lives are a mixture of the coincidental and the ...

  Ever notice that when you have focused on a particular task you begin to notice all things related to the task elsewhere?   Years ago,...

 An undeniable fact of life is that everything passes.   When friends leave, whether to another location or to another world, I understand...

  A little over a year ago, DD informed me that a gift from her was coming my way via the interwebs. And, as it turned out, the gift was a...

  The other day, I stopped, listened, and for the first time really heard— the harsh way I was talking to myself.   Me: “What a dumb thi...

  ^GOOD ADVICE TO LIVE BY^ During my less self-scheduled days, I find myself tempted by a sense of laziness to put off what I could do but...

  One of my foundational values is getting along with people. It’s not much of an obstacle when others think like me. It’s only a challeng...

  There’s a popular trope in children’s literature which swept the world with the arrival of Harry Potter et al. This trope centers on a chi...

 For as long as we keep marking and noting the passing of years, we will continue to count on hope that the numerical change of the counter ...

  We’ve heard about not judging a book by its cover. This goes for not dismissing a person because of the way they dress, or their vocabular...

  About six months ago, a digital security expert writing for the New York Times made a valiant attempt to “disappear from the Internet.” ...

  Years ago, I was asked by a good friend (not a writer or artist) if I had a writing retreat I go to in order to, what else, write.   I...

  I’ve blogged about this before, but the thorny matter of artists calling themselves “ aspiring artist/musician/writer” continues to sting....

  Thanksgiving week is upon us.   Grateful for my brilliant children, and for good kids everywhere.   Grateful for my patient husban...

  ON THIS DATE IN HISTORY, THE FIRST PUSH-BUTTON (TOUCH-TONE) TELEPHONES DEBUTED IN THE UNITED STATES, EVENTUALLY REPLACING MOST ROTARY-DIAL...

Since I read (was it by AI? There was an author name attached, but one never knows) that fifty percent of writers admit to using AI not just...

  In an older post , I disparaged agents whose submission forms ask if your fiction was written by AI. I mean, who would do such a thing? ...

  I’ve been noticing a trend that, while having trickles of historical roots, has become a flood in the last thirty years or so.   What ...

  I don’t get “ writer’s block ,” which in my not humble enough opinion is clinical depression as manifested in a writer. But I do have chap...

  One of my first beta readers, way back when, suggested that my plotting was strong but that characters lacked distinctive speech patterns....

  A dear friend told me more than ten years ago that her physical bookshelves were emptying. For reasons of space saving, she had gone from ...

  One of my favorite Jewish jokes goes like this: Two people have an argument and go to the rabbi to rule who’s right. After hearing the f...

 HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL ITS LEAVES FALLING ON THE PATH TO A MORE PEACEFUL MERCIFUL FUTURE 🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂 🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂 🍂🍂🍂 🍂

  This morning, I am thinking about polls. Not “the Poles,” who are the people of Poland, but these pesky things asking for our opinion.  ...

  When faced with a seemingly unresolvable ethical dilemma, I resort to The Golden Rule.   Most know the New Testament version: "...

  …TRY SOFTER   I’ve been contemplating this bit of advice, seemingly more a play on an idiom than wise, when out of the cloudy sky it c...

  If we change the word in the title of this post from “trolling” to “commenting,” most of us would recognize ourselves.   Sadly, some o...

  Many writers and literary analysts have said that the power of stories lie not in the events, but the meaning we make of the events.   ...

  You’ve been warned. Right now, I’m Ms. Grump because of my yesterday. I hope to climb out from under today with the help of letting it out...