Mirka Muse

On one of the kid-lit writers’ chat boards, a multi-published author was lamenting her lot. Yes, she has a great agent, a strong major pub...

We’ve all heard we must not let others define us. But last Saturday I did, and it was one of those * moments .* Whatever you may say about...

Some years ago, when thought of writing with the intention to publish was still a private one, I got the best advice. This bit of advice s...

“Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. And inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.” Groucho Marx   Let me linger wit...

I generally avoid temptation, unless I can’t resist it. I should avoid bookstores when money is tight. I always tell myself I’ll just...

On the eve of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, we are to ask others for forgiveness for offenses committed in the past year. “If...

I often use quotations when I sit down to write on this blog. It’s a propeller for me, and a kick-starter for the post I’m about to writ...

Wishing all of us who celebrate Rosh Hashanah*, the beginning of a Jewish New Year, a blessed and fruitful time of healing and fortifica...

“There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.” Joseph Brodsky   The first advice given to would-...

“Experience is a good school, but the fees are high.”                                                                                  ...

“The trouble of talking too fast is you may say something you haven’t thought of yet.”                                                 ...

The end of summer also means the beginning of my writing year. Oh, I write during the summer. I write Emails and blog posts. I write le...

What is an author feeling when the real-honest-to-goodness paper Author Copies arrive? First this^ Then this- And finally tha...

Sometimes the road not taken was a life lesson, because the road you wound up on was a vast improvement. Take for example the flight ba...

Well, it’s almost August, and I’m back. I can still hear an elderly neighbor I had many years ago saying, “I need a vacation from my v...

While the guys hold fort at home, DD and I will be going to an international piano competition. She- as a semi-finalist, and I- as her dev...

~It’s summer, time for fun and *games*~ And I got tagged for two blog awards. Summer says I’m playing. But just like    Monty Python’...

“When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail.” This, from Abraham Maslow, the founder of Humanistic P...

In the three writerly Rs, the third is Reviews. Relieved that it’s not ‘aRithmetic?’ Relief may not last long. I’m thinking less about ...

If I try to be like him, who will be like me? That’s an old Yiddish proverb. {For someone who doesn’t speak Yiddish, I’m full of Yiddis...

How does a shy person tackle this thing called self-promotion? We don’t. An old joke tells of how to distinguish a truly shy person ...

There’s a Yiddish saying- You can’t ride two horses with one behind . But (homophone intended) isn’t that what we moderns do all the ti...

When was the last time you laughed your pants off? Speaking for myself, I never laugh my pants off. My pants stay put. But I do laugh u...