by kristinoakley | May 7, 2021 | Creativity & Craft, Newsletter
After writing about the Academy Awards, I was curious about screenwriting so, I decided to interview my friend and colleague, Rebecca Williams Spindler. Rebecca is an award-winning novelist, screenwriter, producer, and the former Vice President of the Wisconsin...
by kristinoakley | Apr 9, 2021 | Creativity & Craft, Newsletter
When I told my editor, Tim Storm, I was struggling with the character arcs in The Devil Particle series he suggested reading craft books by Michael Hague and Lisa Cron. So, I checked out Michael Hague’s Story Master website and was surprised to find a video of...
by kristinoakley | Mar 26, 2021 | Creativity & Craft, Newsletter
Laurie Scheer, the powerhouse who made UW-Madison’s Writers’ Institute a must-attend event for thousands of writers throughout the Midwest, is offering new opportunities for writers. In this interview, Laurie and I discuss Nature Writing and her latest...
by kristinoakley | Mar 12, 2021 | Creativity & Craft, Newsletter
When I was seven or eight, I asked my mom, “Do you want to meet everyone in the world?” She looked at me in surprise and said, “No.” Her answer surprised me. I thought everyone wanted to meet everyone else. And I had been feeling anxious,...
by kristinoakley | Dec 21, 2020 | Creativity & Craft, Newsletter
I stumbled across this short story while searching through the files on my old laptop for my daughter’s college essay. I’m not sure when I wrote this, maybe when I first heard the phrase “climate change” back in the 80s? It’s a quirky...
by kristinoakley | Aug 30, 2020 | Creativity & Craft, Newsletter
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve made an important decision–I’ve decided to put my writing first. To you, this may seem an obvious thing to do, especially if you have a 9 to 5 job. If writing is my job, and it is, why don’t I just set aside...
