Ashley Needles

Tips and Tools The first step in writing a book is being okay with it not being the most fantastic piece of literature ever. Accepting yourself as a bad writer is the most important step to becoming a great writer. Next, while some people write from the seat of their pants this doesn't work well for complex plot lines. I started by doing quick chapter summaries, the more prep work you do the less rewriting you must do later. My favorite writing program to use is Novlr , unfortunately, after a small free period, it does cost ten dollars a month. Luckily there are plenty of free online sites that work quite well. Fast Pencil  is what I moved to next but then they updated the platform which while it is still a wonderful program to use it doesn't allow for indentation. I'm a freak for indentation. It helps me keep track of my ideas. Why I don't use ibooks author despite having a mac, it seems to always quit on me when I'm half way through. The other rea...

The first of August Nineteen Twenty an African-American girl was born. What happened to her is the reason you pay so much for healthcare. She weighs over  Fifty Million Metric Tons and growing. Today, despite being dead and not having much of an education she works tirelessly in labs worldwide creating cancer treatments, and other medicines. Many of the laws governing abortion, healthcare, and pharmaceuticals exist because of her. She is worth more than every rich person on earth combined and yet her family has always been poor This woman is the reason someone you love is alive today. Her name is Henrietta Lacks. The Supreme Court ruled her body with its immortal cells did not belong to herself or her family. This is why when doctors take your organs they don't pay you for it. Even if your organs are the reason they win a Nobel prize or make billions. It's also why women can't have an abortion for profit. (An aborted fetus is worth over sixty-two thousand do...

Lately it's been getting colder where I'm at (which btw I can't say where that is or why I can't.) Anyway I started sleeping with a heating pad at my feet. I have never had so many nights with such incredible dreams. Since using the heating pad, every time I go to sleep I enter a world where some times I'm in a relationship with Clark Kent aka Super Man or I'm in Venice and can use the water to body board around town. I know Venice doesn't have giant waves IRL but this was a dream and wow is it cool using a blast of water to go up to the fifth story and enter through an open window when I don't feel like taking the stairs. It's made it hard to get out of bed but at least I'm not having nightmares every other night. (PTSD enough said.) The other benefit is I feel better rested and more motivated when I wake up. Writing has also seemed easier. My word count is up. It's like having great dreams is also helping with my creative juices ...

I've often viewed loneliness as a fault, as weak, pathetic and stupid. Not surprisingly it's something I haven't experienced often. Whenever I felt lonely I would doll myself up and go to Denny's or some other twenty-four-hour place to hang and meet people. I was never a girl who was afraid of being alone. I didn't jump from one relationship to the next. I was fine casually dating. Now loneliness sits on my chest, tears clog my throat and my eyes burn. It isn't that I can't go out and meet people and casually date if I really wanted to. It would be an adventure and I'd meet lots of fascinating people. Only I don't. I sit alone at night with Netflix and my dog letting loneliness's chill teeth bite down into my soul a little deeper. Fear holds me hostage. Fear of failing, fear of not being good enough, and fear of being hurt. In the past three years since my husband left me for someone else I've become trapped in a web of guilt made by all t...

Last night I spoke with my spirit guides, higher self, hallucinations, or other personalities whatever you want to call those voices.  My guides appeared in many wonderful entertaining forms. A goblin witch, a cyclops ogre, human, talking animals and plants. It was like being in a Pixar film. My imagination was running wild or I was tapping into the fifth dimension. JK Anyway, the Goblin Witch led me out of the very alive forest to a lake glistening beneath the sun and I was given a choice to go with her across the lake or to stay in the forest. The lake was so large I couldn't see the other side. I had no idea where we were going and when I asked I was told, "No one knows where the choices they make will take them."  The Goblin Witch tapped her foot impatiently as I considered the pros and cons of getting in the boat. I got in. She paddled us out into the lake. The shore quickly disappeared.  I asked, "What would have happened if I'd stayed?"  Wav...