Are you working smart… or just working hard?

One Of Those Days
So, this is my public declaration:
Blog One Of Those Days 2

Yes, I may be shouting, but it’s not directed at you, dear reader.

It’s true, I’m angry, but I’m angry at myself. I seem to have come down with the Paperwork Blues. For some time now I’ve been aware of a devolution of my professional life.

To the point where the harder I work, the more is piled onto my desk… and the farther I fall behind!

Sound familiar?

I think this may be the case with many of us. It becomes a question of working SO hard and for SO long that you can no longer remember what YOUR OWN goals are.

So I find myself asking myself this question: What do you want to accomplish, Donna?

And guess what? The answer is NOT “More paperwork, please.”

And it’s also not “Oh, let me, I’d love to stare obsessively at this monitor for another 9 hours, hoping to catch up with all this minutiae.”

Nope.

Not at all.

So allow me to press the question further. What is it you hope to accomplish today? This week? This year?

Is that pile of paperwork on your desk going to help you accomplish it?

Or, as in my case, is it actually going to hold you back from your professional and personal goals?

I’ve come to the conclusion that the harder I work, the happier others are to allow me to keep on doing exactly that.

(Really, guys, I love you all madly, but this can’t go on! **smooches**)

The people who seem to get ahead in this life are the ones who know how to delegate, to push back, to walk away from that steaming mound of, er, paper.

After the year I’ve just survived, you can bet I’ll be trying to learn a lesson from those fortunate souls!

Donna Amazon Page Visit

The road to The End: a deeply personal journey

BLOG The End canstockphoto14428803For me, writing is a solitary art. I’m sure that’s true for many of my colleagues.

On the other hand, networking requires an author to be present, to be a voice among many within the literary community.

But the act of writing is not usually a collaborative effort.

We each come to this private place, this lookout, on our own feet — and for our reasons.

Some of us need to share our truths, those rare nuggets of beauty and pain that we have experienced.

Others want only to entertain.

Of course, the best among us strive to do both: to thrill readers, make them laugh, cry and feel something as we hold them to our truths. To “bump souls” with them for want of a better phrase.

We cannot always predict where the winding road of our words will lead. Of course, that’s why we love the creative journey. Its beauty lies in the surprises we encounter.

Whatever path you follow, may you always reach “The End” of your story.
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A visit from the Dark Muse…

Donna Dark MuseThe world of crime is a murky one.

Its streets are unlit, fraught with fear, and its heart charged with mystery.

I write crime. It’s what I do

And like so many authors of that age-old genre, my soul welcomes a visit from the Dark Muse.

We reside in a world that seems, of late, to have gone truly mad; madder than ever, I would venture.

We hurl words about the Internet with intent to injure each other. Too many of our politicians ignore the lessons of history, speaking lies and half-truths that can only lead to hurt. The news and social medias are full of terror and rants, threatening our very sense of freedom and peace.

In these dark and dangerous times, why would anyone choose to explore Crime Fiction? After all, we need only look to the daily news for that cheap thrill, that scintillating proximity to pain.

Yet, when the Dark Muse comes to call, I open the door.

Here, in the world of crime fiction, I find my freedom.

Freedom to express all that I find troubling, good or noble about these times.

Justice, balance, heroism… All flourish in fiction…

…despite their rarity in this real world of ours.


Donna Amazon Page VisitDonna Dark Muse