By Cara Lopez Lee I’ve been getting rid of them this week. The extra words. I often say too much. My obsessive compulsive disorder makes this so hard to control that sometimes it feels like I only have two options: say everything or nothing at all. Sometimes I write a...
In this month's edition of Long Story Short, I take a personal look at a sacred yet strange space, the marriage bed: "...when you spend years sleeping with one person everything that happens in bed is too much information." Please check out Smelly Make This Bed (if...
Do you have time to read a 50-word story? Sure you do! My flash-fiction story, The Showstopper, was published today at - where else? - 50-Word Stories. It's kind of weird...I hope.
Writers, today at The Blood-Red Pencil I talk about that thing I never wanted to do because I feared it would stunt my creativity, but which has instead increased my creativity: outlining.
Today at The Blood-Red Pencil, I share my recent experience baring my soul before a Los Angeles audience without a book, notes, or any written material in hand. I thought author readings were nerve-wracking, but those are nothing compared to a StorySlam and Stage...
How do fiction authors create believable bad guys? I find I must explore the existence of my own inner villain. Today at The Blood-Red Pencil, I explore this confronting approach to writing antagonists, with a post called I'm The Bad Guy?
It happens to writers sometimes, but I never thought it would happen to me. No matter how much we love them, no matter how hard they work for us, no matter how sure we are that they cannot be replaced: sometimes we have to fire our protagonists. Today at The Blood-Red...
Fiction writers, who is the boss of what happens in your stories: you, the characters, or some other mysterious force? That's the question I ponder today in my post at The Blood Red Pencil, Who's Telling This Story Anyway?
Today at The Blood-Red Pencil, I consider how both introverted and extroverted writers deal with the ecstasy and the agony of writing conferences. Whether you're a writer or a reader, or just an introvert or an extrovert, I believe you'll relate to my post: An...
Are you a sucker for romance even if you don't read romance novels? Check out my interview of bestselling novelist Andrew Sean Greer (The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells), today at The Blood-Red Pencil. It's part of that blog's February look at Men and Romance. Greer...
Cara Lopez Lee is the author of the novel, Candlelight Bridge, and the memoir, They Only Eat Their Husbands. She’s a winner of The Moth StorySLAM and is featured in many personal storytelling shows. Her writing appears in such publications as the Los Angeles Times, Manifest-Station, and Rivet. Cara and her husband love traveling, but their home is coastal Ventura, California, where they enjoy tending their Certified Wildlife Habitat full of birds, bees, and butterflies.
