Category: Life
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Chapter Awesome: IN WHICH JULIE GETS AN AGENT
Guys, it’s happened. I have dreamt of being an author since grade school. For the last two and a half years I have worked at that dream aggressively, every day writing or reading or researching (or all of the above) in efforts to tell a good story, improve my craft, and start a career. Today…
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On Doubt
The subject of doubt seems to be coming up a lot lately in my conversations with fellow writers and artists. I’m not sure why that is, but I know it’s an intrinsic part of the artist’s life and since I’ve experienced it quite recently I thought this would be a good time to reflect on…
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On Buying Used Books…With Inscriptions
I love secondhand shops. Bookstores, boutiques, or Goodwill– doesn’t matter. A) I love a good bargain and B) You never know what you’ll find. Every visit is a treasure hunt. That’s half the fun! Well, last weekend my exploits turned up this journal: It’s a Paperblanks hardcover journal. If you’ve ever browsed among the blank…
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Writing is like cooking: There’s no one way
Almost every time I cook, bake, or prepare something elaborate to eat, I find myself making the same observation: I don’t follow the recipe. Or rather, I try to follow the recipe, but we don’t have heavy whipping cream in the fridge so I have to substitute half and half, or there isn’t any butter…
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Writing is right for me because…
I’ve never really believed in “callings”: That a person could know beyond a doubt not just what they should do with their life, but what they were meant to do with it. Or that anyone even IS “meant” to do anything. I do, however, believe in passion…and call me crazy, but between the self doubt…
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Inspiration Boost: an 8 Quote Special
I keep one of those virtual sticky notes in the corner of my desktop, and every so often it just gets so ridiculously long (like, down the street, around the world and to the moon long) that I have to go through and clean it out. One of the bajillion things that I keep in…
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The Most Disgusting Thing I’ve Ever Done
As a writer, I just had to sit down and type this little mishap up. It was too visceral not to record. So here’s what happened. Last week, I turned on a lamp in the living room. Flash. The filament cracks to a surge of blue and the light bulb promptly dies. I unplug the…
Julie Israel 