Select Page

Moving Day!

by | Sep 12, 2015 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

The blog is moving! Its new address is http://www.laurakcurtis.com/blog-2/ . This blog will remain here for a time so that the post links remain active, but all the content has been ported over there as well. So if you’re subscribed, or have this site bookmarked, please follow over there instead!

Basically, this blog was set up long before I built my website and it’s never been properly incorporated. That one is. The website is being rebuilt, too, so make yourself at home, and if you have suggestions, please do let me know.

Thank you!

What Are Your Plans for the Next Two Weeks?

by | Aug 6, 2015 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

PlannerOver the next couple of weeks, starting on August 10, I’ll be teaching a planning course at Savvy Authors. If you’ve been following me for a while you’ll know that planning is not something that came naturally to me, that I had to decide to do it.

But once I’d made that decision, and started making my planner look pretty and found a group of similarly-inclined folks, it really did change a lot of things. When I look back at where I was at the beginning of this year, I can see how much more I’ve gotten accomplished. Which is why I decided to teach the class.

Even if you don’t want to take a course in planning, or don’t have the time or money, I encourage you to check out my post on the MWA-NY blog where I talk about SMART goals and link to a great video about achieving word count.

If you think the course might interest you, here’s what we’ll be doing:

Day 1: Introductions, goal discussion

Day 2: Setting the big goals: Your writing and your health; build in flexibility

Day 3: Chunking — the key to small goal setting (everyone tends to have similar big goals, but their chunks look very different)

Day 4: Setting realistic time goals and avoiding burnout — multiple goals come into play here

Day 5: Micro goals: daily word count, calories, fitness steps, etc.

Day 6: Dividing your day (this will look different for everyone)

Day 7: To Do lists — turning your nemesis into your ally

Day 8: Planning to plan

Days 9-10: Putting it all together

I hope to see you in the planning class!

Not My Thoughts, but Thoughts I Share

by | Jun 19, 2015 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

Black and white islandUndoubtedly, the most famous section of John Donne’s Meditation XVII is the following:

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were: any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.

The first time I read the Meditations, I was struck by the fact that this little section, the section everyone knows, or at least the section that is vaguely familiar to most people if only from books and songs, is tucked away in the middle of the meditation, at the beginning of a much longer paragraph.

I think that it’s taken so often out of the context of the rest of the work because it has none of the religious elements of the rest of the work, but that is a shame. If you don’t have a negative reaction to spiritual texts (and believe me, I totally understand if you do), and if you’ve never read the entire Meditation, I urge you to do so. You can find here here.

If you’re confused about why this has been on my mind, you’re not paying attention.

Flowers and Rocks and Iguanas, Oh, My! More Pictures Added.

by | Jun 3, 2015 | Uncategorized | 1 comment

A few pictures from my vacation and the day I got back. The peonies and hydrangea are in my yard, but the other flowers and the iguanas are from St. Martin. I have no idea what they are. I love the purple and white star-shaped ones with the succulent-looking leaves. I’ve added these to the photo gallery for public use as well if anyone wants to use them for anything.