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with Drake The Duck Muse
Multi-Genre Author ~ Editor ~ Book Designer ~ Writing Coach

The Blog Thingy
Where Emotion and Information are Dispensed Inconsistently... Sometimes
You'll find some interesting stuff here...
a few Op Eds, some Writing Craft Information, Book Reviews, and More. Poke around the categories and see what ruffles your feathers... in a good way!



Infused With Energy, The Words Flow Easily
February 2026 A few nights ago, I spent two hours writing with an amazing group of people, the Creative Slingers of Ink . Every Monday night, we meet in the Zoom Room and support each other through creating the words that need to find a home on our pages. I know I've written in other blog posts about the tremendous energy that flows when authors meet to write in community... and I was again reminded about the amazingness found - even via Zoom - when creative souls spend tim
3 min read


What If Your Reading List Is Your Ticket To Utopia?
January 2026 What if the key to spiritual immortality, that elusive, encoded passport that will grant you entrance into whatever spiritual utopia you’re hoping to find one day, hinges exclusively on the books you’ve read throughout your lifetime? Consider: From the time we are very young, in nearly every culture, we are taught that the answers we seek, on almost any subject… spirituality, health and wellness, emotional stability, financial prosperity, moral and legal codes, i
4 min read


A New November...
November 1, 2025 For a long time now, each November, I've rustled up my intention and concentrated on writing every day of the month - no slacking. The whole thing started with Chris Baty and a thing called NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) back in 1999. But a few years ago, the organization fell on hard times and was forced to disband. But that doesn't mean that the writers of the world stopped doing their thing in November. We kept going, splintering into smaller
5 min read


Giving Back with The Written Word
September 2025 Since I was a youngster, community service has always been important to me. Over the years, I've served families in crisis...
5 min read


The Evolution of A Book Cover
September 2025 We say it all the time, "Don't Judge A Book By It's Cover." But the problem is, it's human nature to make decisions about...
7 min read


Writing Craft Resources vs Generative AI: An Increasingly Unpopular Opinion
August 2025 I recently added three new writing resource books to my collection. 😊 For more than five decades, I've used writing craft...
5 min read


Chronologically Intelligent to Emotionally Intelligent in One Swell Foop
April 2025 When I initially began writing Tears Remember , my paranormal novel, I had a brilliant understanding of the organization of...
4 min read


Flippers at the Keyboard by the Pale Moonlight
April 2025 Drake and I met with our editor, Kalli Connor, a few weeks ago, and since then we've put a lot of work into our paranormal...
3 min read


The Pseudonym Discussion
December 2019 There’s a lively discussion that surrounds the choice to use a pen name or not. Some authors swear by them, others don’t...
2 min read


Before You Publish... Ask...
December 2019 National Novel Writing Month is over, and those who participated and "won" now have a first draft of their book sitting...
2 min read


Book Scavenger Hunts are... Literary Fun!
July 2020 Yesterday, I released three books into the wild, in a fun Book Scavenger Hunt game I discovered. I thought today, I should...
4 min read


The Road Not Nearly Traveled Enough
July 2021 For the past week, I’ve been on a Writing Hermitage at our cabin in northern, lower Michigan. My husband and I acquired this...
7 min read


Reflections On My Time In A Bookshop
January 2019 It was an interesting eighteen months at The Grey Wolfe Scriptorium; filled will joy, chaos, and good friends. I learned a...
5 min read


I Love The English Language... But...
January 2019 I love the English language. It is by far my favorite thing about having a brain. It is my soap box when I am feeling...
3 min read


Finding The Right Key... A Perspective On Rejection
January 2019 When I was a youngster, in our utility room pantry lived an old five-pound coffee can filled about three-quarters of the way...
3 min read


Three Wishes: My Encounter With A Book Genie
December 2019 It was near midnight on a night in late December. The madness of the holiday season was nearly over... just the ball drop...
8 min read


An Open Letter To The Publishing Bigots* Of The World
June 2020 An observation from my writing desk while perusing writing forums on the Internet… It seems to me that many writers are engaged...
6 min read


What If They Erased Pooh?
March 2021 After spending the past few days nearly suffocated in the news that Dr. Seuss Enterprises (a foundation that I thought was...
7 min read


The State of Returns... We Should Be Sharing The Risk
October 2021 Since I published my first book in 1993, I've been confused about the return policy our industry seems to accept. Now,...
7 min read


Indie Publishing: Is There Too Much To Lose?
November 2021 This morning, in one of the Facebook groups I follow, I saw a post, reminding authors about the (primarily monetary) risks...
3 min read
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