Mirka Muse

  We grasp the past in stories. We frame our understanding of history in the stories historians tell.   There’s a school of thought that...

  In a world where complexity in all matters is the norm, we turn to experts to navigate what’s what.   But who are the experts?   T...

  In Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird (an alternate sort of Bible for writers) there is a poignant chapter on the bloated expectations authors hav...

  Lee Surrenders “It would be useless and therefore cruel,” Robert E. Lee remarked on the morning of April 9, 1865, “to provoke the furthe...

  A few months have passed since I attended a so-called “closed” webinar with a senior editor in one of the big-five publishing houses, and ...

  Some months ago, a post about Autofiction popped into my feed. Here it is , for reference.   Succinctly defined, it’s an autobiographi...

  Once again, I’m allowing myself a post that celebrates my cats, with your indulgence. It helps that the goofy celebration of Purim is arou...

  I know I’ve posted on this before, though it’s been a while. Good stories have an underlying theme, or themes. We know the how-to advi...

  Re-reading this post, I thought how hard it is to know, really know, which advise to follow when one opinionator differs from the other. ...

  In every line of work there are aspects that are less likable. Some of these “unlikables” are universal, but most are not. (You’d think th...

  Or— 1872: NEW YORK'S METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART OPENS   {^The Metropolitan Museum of art circa 1903} If you love visiting museum...

  {Yes, it’s tomorrow}   The human heart doesn’t look much like the graphic known as “heart.” 💓 No matter, because it is one of my fa...

  By now, I would hope we all know not to click on any link provided in a business email, even as the email convincingly purports to come fr...

  I have writing friends who say they are giving up.   They’re giving up writing new stories, querying agents, submitting to small publi...

  OR WRITERS and MONEY By some estimates there are hundreds of thousands of Americans who write full time. Some sources claim as many as...

  “ To write is to fight forgetting .” Annie Ernaux, Nobel laureate in literature 2022     Much is made of the impetus to write. Ann...

  Querying and pitching one’s work is a craft in itself. Books and hundreds of websites of how-to are devoted to this craft and will greet a...

  Or… 🎇Happy New Year🎇 A new calendar year spells a new beginning; a new (or renewed) chance at getting it right. A renewed hope that ...

Harking back to days when I gifted and was gifted holiday gifts, (now a minor part of my holiday season) I remember the day after Christmas...

  Ever note the day’s date and feel there is something significant that you ought to have remembered about it, but you draw a blank?   T...