Treasure Hunt: A True-Life Indiana Jones Saga When you hear the phrase treasure hunt, you might imagine a chest of gold or a legendary artifact. But what if the treasure was a bird—and the hunter an ornithologist? In the mid-1990s, I joined a field trip to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge on the Texas coast to […]
Dead, but Not Forgotten: Murder at the Galvez When asked whether I use real people as inspiration for my stories, I tell folks that there are so many imaginary characters in my head vying for my attention that I don’t need inspiration from a real person. Except—there’s always an exception—right? When I started writing MURDER […]
From 2015 to 2020, I worked as the marketing director at Cave Art Press. One of my weekly tasks was writing a blog called Five-Minute Writing Tips, which eventually became the book Do You Have a CATHARSIS Handy? The book was orphaned when the company closed. Lately, I’ve been thinking about resurrecting both the blog […]
People often ask me where I get my ideas for my stories, or how I develop my characters, or if I outline my plots or make them up as I go along. But I’ve never been asked the question: “Why do you write?” The easy answer is I write to make people laugh and to […]
By Kathleen Kaska When I worked at Cave Art Press, a small publishing company in Anacortes, one of my tasks was to write the weekly blog posts. It had to address writing styles, grammar and punctuation rules, and the down and dirty of publishing and marketing—and it had to be funny. These blog posts eventually […]
Kathleen Kaska When was the last time you wrote a letter or received one? With texting, tweeting, emailing, and Facebook messaging available as popular (and expedient) forms of communication, people rarely write letters nowadays. Why bother, you might ask? I just order the book, Chickens, Gin, and a Maine Friendship: The Correspondence of […]
I love metaphors. When I come across a great one while reading, I write it down as a reminder to spend time crafting them. Here are some musings on metaphors. Mixing metaphors—combining two unrelated idioms—is considered a grammatical faux pas. But in the right circumstances, mixing metaphors fosters a more creative comparison, makes your readers […]
Police Blotter Fodder: “To Save Herself, She Bit the Cop on the Leg” Where to Go for Ideas When You Are Stuck by Kathleen Kaska Need an idea for a short story, blog post, or a novel? Check out the newspapers. I don’t necessarily mean the front page. In our town, the most entertaining […]
Two years ago, I was asked to host a podcast for a local business. Excited to take on something new, I prepared by joining Toastmasters to improve my speaking skills, signing up for a one-day class to learn the mechanics of podcasting, and taking a Creative Life class on conducting podcast interviews. Always a big […]