Mynx Writes

Writing and blogging is an addiction. Admit it - if you write or blog - you are addicted to it.  It's your drug of choice, and you'd probably give up breathing before you put away your pen and paper or your laptop and bid adieu to the Internet forever. This is also the only addiction (that I know of), that you should want to become better at. With that in mind, every Friday for the year of 2012 I'm bringing you the Mynx Writes Weekend Workshop.  Consider it your own personal 12 Step Program for the weekend. Starting next Friday, with each Weekend Workshop I will tackle a different subject related to your addiction, including: 12 steps to overcoming writer's block 12 steps to putting off procrastination  12 steps for brainstorming 12 steps for fostering your creativity 12 steps for creating believable characters 12 steps for building a better blog 12 steps for social networking for writers and bloggers 12 steps for world building Becoming a Grammar...

I have been a writer for almost twenty years. By writer, I mean someone who has penned numerous stories and novels, but never had anything published. In 2006 I got tired of hearing from agents that my novel, Nephiim Genesis of Evil was a great story, but they didn’t think there was a market for it. This was before the ebook rage, at a time when the term self-publishing had an even worse stigma than it does now. I had a friend who encouraged me to go on ahead and self-publish the novel. I was hesitant but decided to jump in. I’m glad I did. Here are a few things I learned from that experience. Self-Publishing Was Easier Than I Thought It Would Be In 2006, I had to hunt for a printer to publish Nephilim and I was worried that the end product would look like a self-published book. I was pleasantly surprised that the released book was just like anything you could pick up at Barnes & Noble. I was also expecting to have a harder time getting it into stores and places online...

I'm not one to make New Year's resolutions.  The only resolution I've ever successfully kept is not to make resolutions in the first place.  That way, I never disappoint myself.  But, if you want to do something with your writing and your blog, and you've got the attention span of a gnat on crack like I do, you will need to set some ground rules for yourself.  I've been brainstorming over the last several weeks to come up with a list of ideas that should keep my writing and my blogging going strong throughout the year.  This will be no mean feat since I've got a degree to finish, a job to find, and then will have to juggle both in the process of continuing to blog and write. With that in mind, here are my writing and blogging resolutions for 2012. 1.   Set a schedule, and stick to it.   This doesn't mean that you can't rearrange or adjust the schedule as necessary, but make a promise to yourself that you will set a schedule and keep it.  For...

Insomnia. It creeps up on you and doesn't let you go.  One minute you're so tired that you can't keep your eyes open, and the next minute your brain is on overdrive and you're still so tired that you can't keep your eyes open.  So you lay there and let your brain run rampant.  In my case, last night, it was on full overdrive.  I did everything.  I rolled over.  I put a pillow over my head.  I got up and went to the bathroom.  I got a glass of water.  I even grabbed my phone and tweeted to whoever was awake and listening for insomnia to go away and tell my brain to shut up on the way out. And then, it came to me... Tommyknockers. Not the movie - the book. Have you ever read it?  "Late last night and the night before, Tommyknockers, Tommyknockers, Knocking at the door..." I'm no genius, but this book holds the solution. Stephen King, when he wrote "Tommyknockers", was expressing an idea that writers all over the w...

Would you like to hear about the time I killed a man in cold blood and got away with it? Or, I could tell you about the time that someone killed me and I was trapped between this world and the afterlife for several hundred years. How about that one time – the time when I survived a zombie apocalypse? Have I told you that story yet? I have done these things, and more, because of the library. I have traveled aboard spaceships and taken exotic vacations to planets that don’t exist. I have stumbled into parallel realities through wardrobes, paintings, and hidden portals in the backyard shed. I have colonized worlds. I have lived on a moon base. I’ve been abducted by aliens and lived through a nuclear winter. I’ve actually survived several zombie apocalypses – not just the one. The library was where I fell in love with dragons, unicorns, and elves, and then brought them home to play with in my imagination. I found monsters in the library, as well. They hid themselves in the ...

Heaven in a pan At Crafty Bitch Headquarters , it wouldn't be Christmas without the fudge.  The awesome, killer, Hershey's chocolatey fudge that mom has made every year for as long as I can remember.  Sounds good, doesn't it? This recipe was passed down from dad's side of the family to my mom by my grandmother. I have no idea if I'm going to disappear for leaking it to the Internet, but it's just too good not to share! Grandma Patchen's Killer Christmas Fudge 4 cups granulated sugar 1 large can Carnation evaporated milk Set aside: 2 large (the HUGE ones, 8oz) Hershey's milk chocolate bars (broken apart) 1 pint or 2 cups marshmallow cream fluff (14-16oz jar) 2 cups chopped walnuts 1 12oz package chocolate chips 2 sticks oleo 2 teaspoons vanilla Boil sugar and evaporated milk together, stirring constantly at a rolling boil for 6 minutes or until mixture reaches soft ball stage. (mixture forms a ball when dropped into cold water) Pour hot mix...

Last Saturday, some fabulous bloggers brought you the 12 Blogs of Christmas . I've had a lot of requests for the recipe of the cheese ball that I shared at Amberr Meadow's 12 Blogs of Christmas: Tasty Traditions and so today, I've posted it here.  It's been quite a few years now, but an old friend in Pennsylvania shared this recipe with me one Christmas, and it's quickly become one of my favorite holiday recipes, and traditions.  I make it instead of cookies for holiday goodie exchanges, and I also give it out to friends and family.  When the holidays roll around, I have plenty on hand for entertaining - it's always a hit.  Mynx’s Fabulously Simple Holiday Cheese Ball Recipe 2 - 8oz packages cream cheese, softened to room temperature 1 - 5oz jar Kraft Old English Spread (@room temperature) 1 - 5oz jar Kraft Roka Blue Spread (@room temperature) 2 Tbsp cider vinegar (or flavored vinegar – feel free to experiment) 2 tsp garlic salt (or garlic powder) 1 cup c...