Month: February 2026

CHALLENGING WORDS

By Miko Johnston

I’m doing something I’ve never done before; in fact, something I’ve avoided throughout my writing career. I’m going to suggest a writing challenge.

Beginning on March first, I challenge all our readers to commit to writing one paragraph a day, in any manner, on any subject. One paragraph. It could be in a journal,  a story idea file, or an existing manuscript. One paragraph consisting of at least two sentences of exposition, dialogue, or a combination.

Sorry, shopping or to-do lists don’t count. It has to be fiction, journaling, or memoir.

One paragraph seems manageable, no matter how busy, stressed, or depleted you feel. In fact, it might help if you’re feeling any of those feelings. One paragraph can be added to a story or novel you’ve begun, or it can begin a letter to a friend or loved one, someone you’ve lost touch with. It can express gratitude to someone who’s been especially kind or helpful to you. It can record your present state of mind. Or it can be a reminiscence of a person or event from your life.

You can write your paragraph first thing in the morning, or during the day, or right before you go to bed. I suppose the timing would depend on what you want to write. Use a pen or a computer, whichever suits your style. And if it spurs you to continue writing, so much the better. If not, that’s okay, as long as you get a paragraph’s worth of words on the page or screen.

One paragraph. Can you commit to that?

…

Miko Johnston, a founding member of The Writers in Residence, is the author of the historical fiction series, “A Petal in the Wind”, as well as a contributor to several anthologies, including the best-selling “Whidbey Island: An Insider’s Guide”. Miko lives in Washington (the big one) with her rocket scientist husband. Contact her at mikojohnstonauthor@gmail.com

 

A “February Is Love” Group Post

By Linda O. Johnston

Many people have something special to remember about Valentine’s Day. I certainly do. It was the day I got engaged to my wonderful husband—more than four decades ago now.

We still lived in Pittsburgh then, and my first Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Panda—Pandaemonium—celebrated with us. We even let him lick the dry exterior of the champagne bottle. Guess it must have smelled interesting, though, of course, we didn’t give him a drink.

We got married in May and have been celebrating ever since, here in Los Angeles now, along with whichever Cavaliers are with us each year. This year, it’s Cari and Lexie.

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!

 

By Rosemary Lord

It’s wonderful, marvelous – this outward show of love, with images of celebrations, hearts and flowers, love songs…

But more intriguing for me as a writer is the silent love that stays hidden. The oft-unrequited love, the unspoken love. The secret love. The love that tugs at the heartstrings.

Whether it’s the quiet, shy love where the individual feels inadequate to express feelings about their heart’s desire. Not wanting to risk rejection, they stay silent. Or the cautious person afraid of getting ridiculed by revealing where their heart wants to go. The feelings of unworthiness or inadequacy to receive their heart’s desire.  The secret love that someone dreams of from afar.

And it’s not just a love of another person. It’s the love and passion for dreams yet to be realized.

It’s the passion for a seemingly unattainable goal, project, or career. Those loves so often stay hidden. The offer or demonstration of love that is held back for fear of being laughed at or worse, being ignored.

It’s the unwritten love stories that stay locked away in a writer’s head for fear of rejection – or just unsure of a perfect ending. The love stories that will never see the light of day.

How many amazing, intriguing tales of love and passion remain hidden and lost to the world?

Those are the love stories that I want to read and want to write.

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By Gayle Bartos-Pool

STOP! in the Name of Love, Searching for Love, You Can’t Hurry Love, April Love, When I Fall in Love, When a Man Loves a Woman, Love Is a Many Splendored Thing, All You Need Is Love, Dream Lover, Can’t Help Falling in Love, I Just Called to Say I Love You, How Deep Is Your Love, Love Me Tender, Love Will Keep Us Together, Love Me or Leave Me, I Will Always Love You…

So many ways to search for love… until it finds you because it so often does in the most interesting places. Then you want to hold onto it… if you can, and you do because, as that last song title says: I Will Always Love You.

Richard and I had a couple of songs we liked, both from singer Randy Travis. We even went to one of his concerts. The songs: Forever and Ever, Amen, and Look Heart, No Hands. And there’s that other one that still brings tears to my eyes: I Will Always Love You…And it always will because Love Is a Many Splendored Thing. Ain’t Love great…

 

By Jill Amadio

My Dearest Valentine,

Here it is, another year, and I dislike you more than ever. Ever since you rejected my submission, the third in my mystery series, I have awoken with bitterness in my heart towards you.

Do you ever consider how your rejections affect authors who are begging for acceptance and publication?

Do you realize the amount of royalties that were envisioned, only to have that dream turn into a nightmare? I was thinking of sending you a big bouquet of dead flowers, but then I thought about the cost of mailing them.

Always looking forward to next year!

jill

 

By Miko Johnston

The journey of love takes place over a lifetime. The early yearning for it. The sweet innocence of that first infatuation. The intensity of true requited love. The joy and peace that come from loving someone and having their love over the years. The sweetness of togetherness and the sorrow of loss. Music has always captured those emotions so well. A very partial and personal list:

“How Will I Know?”

“I Believe (When I Fall in Love it will be Forever)”

“Can’t Help Falling in Love”

“At Last”

“I Got You Babe”

“My Guy”

“Only You”

“Unchained Melody”

“God Only Knows”

“In My Life”

“Maybe I’m Amazed”

*

“I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party”

“The Tracks of my Tears”

“How Can You Mend a Broken Heart”

“All In Love is Fair”

“I Will Always Love You”

For me, love has always held hands with music.

 

By Jackie Houchin

For about 22,630 days, I have felt loved in one way or another. This is approximately how long I have been married to my one and only husband. (62 years on February 1st) Of course, I felt loved in the months of engagement before that, too.

Love isn’t always romantic.  Sometimes it’s simply sustaining, especially in times of trouble. Sometimes love is felt when you are sick in bed, and a warm bowl of soup is brought to you. Or when you are exhausted…. and the long list of household chores gets finished without a word from you.

I feel loved when I come up with “brilliant” (I think) ideas, and my husband (who might roll his eyes a bit) sets about to accomplish them to the best of his ability.

Yes… I am definitely LOVED, and I feel it every day.

 

 

 

 

 

Could I Be An Accomplice?

By Jill Amadio

I am currently editing a book for a client. He has written and published two previous books in his series of life as a Liverpool bank robber who manages to escape prison, flee to America, and be hired by top movie stars as a posh English butler.

All well and good and a fascinating in-depth glimpse into not only his own surprising story but also personal, little-known facts about his famous employers. They included Clint Eastwood, Marlon Brando, and others.

Hired as a waiter and swiftly promoted to a butler with forged credentials that led to his being hired on the QE2 liner sailing from Southampton to New York, his career took an unexpected turn when passenger Elizabeth Taylor advised him to pursue a job with Hollywood celebrities.

The book I am editing describes several crimes he committed as a bank robber in England, but also a crime aboard the QE2 cruise liner, in which he stole Queen Elizabeth II’s Jubilee jewelry that was on display in the ship’s shopping arcade.

A monster hurricane hit the liner in the middle of the North Atlantic, tossing the ship around like a toy, causing damage on all decks, and smashing the glass on the cabinet displaying the British royal family’s diamonds. He had planned the theft differently, but this fortunate moment laid the jewels at his feet.

He was not caught and managed to sell the jewels in New York through a friendly fence whom he’d known since childhood in the UK.

Question: Could I be considered an accomplice by editing his book and keeping quiet about its contents before publication?

Surely, a bonanza of a marketing tool?

I certainly came on the scene merely as an editor and proofreader well after the fact. I had nothing to do with the actual theft, fascinated as I am by its surprisingly fortuitous assistance by a perfectly timed hurricane.

In none of the 17 biographies and memoirs I ghostwrote did a client confess to such an incident. I have no idea whether the statute of limitations has run out on this project, but the possibility does give me pause.

Many crooks have written books about their misdeeds. Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood” chronicles a famous case, especially when he took the side of one of the two criminals, and books by the Mafia come to mind, as well as the many Michael Connelly mysteries derived from real criminal cases in and around Los Angeles.

So, I believe I am safe from prosecution, especially since my name is nowhere on or in the book, which reminded me that my ghostwriting clients rarely added a brief ‘Thank You’ to their Acknowledgements page. I dream of a client adding, “And thanks to Jill Amadio for writing my book for me.”

I am often asked which of my ghostwriting projects was my favorite. Hands down, it was about a 1912 trial of a student expelled from the University of Chicago for accusing her housemates of theft.

All of which brings to mind another pet peeve – that most writers fail to read passages aloud that may be garbled. Recording them on a tape recorder or your cell phone and playing them back can reveal whether they sound normal, forced, or a mess.

For this editing project, I asked the writer to simplify a particular paragraph and read it aloud. It came back worse than ever. Obviously, he had not followed orders! Another client quit halfway through, saying it was “too hard.”

“But I’m doing all the work!” I said. No matter. He still quit.

Happily, I am enjoying this current editing project despite my grumbling. I am learning new facts about how a criminal operates on both sides of the pond, always helpful for one’s own mysteries.

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(photo by  Oleg Gapeenko)