lynda rutledge

Happy to announce that Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale has won the

2013 WRITERS LEAGUE OF TEXAS Book Award for Fiction.

Honored beyond words.

For a complete list of finalists and winners in other genres, click here:

2013 Writers League of Texas Book Awards Read More 

Column #10: RESIST

Want to be a writer?
•Master the art of the Resist:
•Resist expectations...
•Bad goal: Bestseller next year.
•Better goal: A book one fine day
• Best goal: Write for yourself and watch yourself grow.
•Resist comparisons to others....
•...the green-eyed monster prowls and devours.
•Resist distractions...
•...unless distraction is exactly what you need (and often it is).
•Resist excessive email/texting/facebook/twitter/social media du jour...
•...rule it; don't let it rule you.
•Resist limitations...
•...that's an editor's job.
•Resist the urge to tell your story to others...
•...unwritten oral rule: If you tell it, you won't write it.
•Resist the idea you'll never have another idea.
•Resist resisting the blank page...
•...brainstorm. Free associate. Doodle. It's all good.
•Resist others' expectations:
•Good goal: Just say "No" to timesucks.
•Best goal: Save some "yes" for yourself.
•Give in when you must, because that's life. But, daily, practice the writerly art of the:
•Resist.  Read More 

My inner professor is very proud that my novel Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale was reviewed in a fine academic journal, American Southwestern Literature. Frequent book reviewer Dr. Herb Thompson of Virginia's Emory & Henry College reviewed it for the Spring 2013 issue. Thanks, Prof. Thompson, especially for calling it "one of the best books you've read in awhile."
 Read More 

Column #9: REPEAT

Want to be a writer?
•Write something, then do it again. With gusto.
•Work on voice: Clear literary throat.
•Experiment. Write. Delete. Repeat.
•Give your inner smart aleck full rein, then rein it in.
•Channel inner smart aleck into dignified prose.
•Practice some pathos. Switch hitters play more.
•Get a job as a copywriter. That'll teach you.
•To wit: Try cutting that 3000 word masterpiece to 500.
•Result: Talk about zing.
•Repeat.
•Have epiphany: First drafts are not fun; fun is in rewrite.
•Grasp meaning of Gertrude Stein's famous quote: "To write is to write is to write is to write is to write."
•Google Gertrude Stein: Yearn to live in 1920 Paris with young E. Hemingway et al.
•Remember Hemingway's answer when asked why he rewrote a last line 33 times:
•"To get the words right."
•To write is to write right:
•Repeat.

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Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale was the subject of a "Book Report" in the April edition of Southern Living Magazine that even got a plug in for what is probably the biggest antiques fair in the country. An excerpt:

This Texas author's debut novel has us gearing up for the 45th annual Round Top Spring Antiques Fair this month. Set in Bass, Texas, the book centers around the wealthiest woman in town who after 20 years of hiding, comes out with a yard sale where Tiffany lamps and Louis XV clocks are sold for pocket change. There's high society drama and debaucherous family secrets that make for an enthralling Sunday read...."

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Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale and I have been having lots of book club fun, be it Skyping, Call-ins, or In-Person events. (See info about it on "For Book Club" page) Crazy fun!

Sometimes one of the members brings a camera, and sometimes even writes about it on their book club blog. That's what happened with the Round Rock New Neighbors Book Club that has been meeting at their local Barnes & Noble bookstore for 20 years. Here's one of the photos. link to an album of the fun as well as Claudia Harbert's wonderful review of the event. Thanks, Claudia and Frank Campbell!

And thanks to the dozens of book clubs I've had the honor of attending virtually and in-person this year! More to come! Read More 

Column #8: TRAVEL

Want to be a writer?
•Travel.
•Risk geographically. Leave your comfort zone.
•Take long drives.
•Travel back roads away; this will stimulate.
•Travel interstates home; this will meditate.
• Look. Really look. Until you see.
•Travel through the desert at least once.
•Empty your mind: Listen to the whole lot of nothing.
•Think big wordless thoughts, as big as vistas.
•Stop at tourist traps; gawk; buy weird souvenirs.
•Take a long train ride at a window seat at least once.
•Feel oddly connected to whizzing world outside window.
•Go out on the ocean beyond sight of land at least once.
•Feel small and yet chest-busting large.
•Wander a foreign city without knowing the language at least once.
•Feel oddly connected to spinning earth outside words.
•Savor the tingle, fear: That's your perspective adjusting.
•Embrace what goes wrong; it's the stuff of your best stories.
•Just don't drink the water.
•Proust: "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes."
•Listen to the guy.
•Shake up your vision: Take a see voyage.
•Travel.

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Column #7: LISTEN

Want to be a writer?
•Listen.
•Eavesdrop.
•Enjoy waiting in line.
•Choose 50 items or less line at grocery store.
•Scan tabloid while listening. Appear nonchalant; be cool.
•But listen.
•Take the crowded bus, the packed train.
•Listen to rude cellphone chatter.
•Train your ear.
•Everything is material because everything's alive.
•Your writing should be alive.
•How?
•Specifics: Details spring words to life.
•Don't ask: "Why won't that bird shut up?"
•Ask: "What kind of bird was that?"
•Don't ask: "Why won't that guy shut up?"
•Ask: "What kind of guy says that?"
•Be invisible; be wallpaper, a fly on the wall
•Feel blood pressure drop when delayed, jostled, waitingwaiting
•Never be bored again.
•You are a spy:
•Shut up. Listen.
•The world is a noisy mess.
•Make it work for you.
•Capture mental soundbites to relay to page, then
•Revel in the sound of silence:
•Ahhhhhh
•Now fill it up with what you've heard.
•Listen.

(more to come-stay tuned) Read More 

Column #6: JOT

So you want to be a writer?
•Jot.
•Jot, jot, jot.
•Jot a lot.
•Give yourself permission to be a writer who respects his/her ideas enough to jot.
•Got a good memory, you say? Famous last words.
•Jot on paper napkins, receipts, magazine page margins (then rip discreetly and pocket.)
•Interrupt conversations if you must. Be self-deprecating, apologetic, or lie like a dog, but jot before the idea flies away.
•Borrow/swipe pens if you must.
•Jot on your arm.
•Text yourself.
•Leave yourself a voicemail.
•Buy one of those tiny Swiss knifes with a pen.
•But jot that thought. Or curse yourself in the morning.
•The edges of forgotten ideas can haunt like ghosts.
•Your creative mind is a fickle thing. The spark may flicker and fade.
•It may not even be a good idea, but if you don't jot, it will become the Idea of the Century, the Bestselling, LifeChanger that got away.
•Who needs that grief?
•So learn the power of the scribble.
•Jot.


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Column #5:WHINE

Want to be a writer?
•Learn the fine art of the whine:
•Feel paranoid; unappreciated; ahead-of-your-time.
•Take other writers' successes as a personal affront since they're not as good as you (They may not be).
•Spend lots of time at coffee houses expressing this feeling.
•Whine until you're sick of the sound of your own voice...
•Then go out and live.
• Out. Out there. Beyond your door. Away from the vapid glow of your computer screen and comforts of remote controls.
•Build a house with Habitat for Humanity, pick up cans along the highway, walk dogs for cancer, shelve books for the library, read to the blind: You get the picture.
•Offer your way with words to help the cause.
•Get good at it; good for the good.
•Feel on-the-nose appreciated.
•Feel less self-involved yet inspired.
•Take that feeling back to the vapid glow of your computer screen, then
•Cordone off a no-whine zone: Create.
•Realize most artists aren't appreciated until they die.
•Don't die. Live. Write. Right now. For the sake of it. For the art. For your soul.
•Then and only then, take a nanosecond when you feel the urge as a nice cleansing purge and...
•Whine.
•Feel better?
•Good.

 Read More