fiction – Linley B. Marcum

How to Stretch Your Creative Muscles When You’re Feeling Uninspired

Writers write – it’s the foundation of what those who produce prose of any type build upon. But what happens when the muse simply won’t sing? How do you keep going when you feel like you’ve got nowhere to go? There are a thousand different methods espoused on a thousand different blogs to remedy thisContinue reading “How to Stretch Your Creative Muscles When You’re Feeling Uninspired”

Time and Why There’s Not Enough of It

Yes, I’ve been absent a bit. I know. I decided a bit ago that it was best I focus on finishing the MFA and unfortunately, that meant putting A LOT of the things I enjoy on the backburner for a bit. That included this blog and to some extent, the website as well. It meantContinue reading “Time and Why There’s Not Enough of It”

I Need a Hero…

I was all set to talk about looking to the future tonight, and then we had tragedy strike our home today. For several years now, we have been a 2-kitty household. Yesterday, our male cat, Dean, was not acting himself. He seemed to feel better this morning, but in the afternoon he declined quickly andContinue reading “I Need a Hero…”

Vacay Week + What It’s Like

This past week was the vacation week in between SNHU terms. I had high hopes for the week, I was gonna get started on upcoming work for the first week of the new terms’ classes and pump up my WIP word count. Weeeeeell…I got week one work done for one class, and I wrote aContinue reading “Vacay Week + What It’s Like”

In-Between Times + Character Sketches

Today is the last day of the May – July term at SNHU in the MFA / Creative Writing program. I’ve got 7 days and then it’s on to the next – my courses will be Speculative Fiction Writing II and The Business of Writing. So far, I have received a grade for the finalContinue reading “In-Between Times + Character Sketches”

The Importance of the Critique

Happy Sunday, everyone! Here in the US, and in West Virginia, today is Father’s Day, and it’s also West Virginia Day, so were celebrating double today. I managed to marry a fantastic man who is also a fantastic father to our son. So, to my sweet hubs Chris, I hope you have a fantastic Father’sContinue reading “The Importance of the Critique”

Motivation and Critique

Now that life’s a little more calm at Marcum Manor, we can get back to the regular grind of things. School, work, home – lather, rinse, repeat. Between wrangling assignments, wrangling co-workers, and wrangling family members (both of the un-fuzzy and fuzzy variety), I stay pretty exhausted most of the time. That’s okay, though. HowContinue reading “Motivation and Critique”

A Whole New World (Kind Of…)

It’s been a pretty good and pretty productive week here at Marcum Manor. I’ve mad some significant progress on The Loneborn (I’m up over 7,000 words! Yippee!), I managed to not just get my schoolwork done but done early, AND we’ve got my son’s birthday weekend celebration planned and in place for next weekend! I’mContinue reading “A Whole New World (Kind Of…)”

Style, Bay-bee!

We’ve made it, guys! It’s May, and we’re well into springtime here in West Virginia. It’s been an eventful weekend at Marcum Manor. On Friday, the hubs and I helped to move our son back from his freshman year at college. It was, overall, a successful year for him. He had a pretty good firstContinue reading “Style, Bay-bee!”