5 questions that have helped redirect my life
Here are a few questions I’ve been thinking about over the past year or so. I admit, the older I get the deeper I go, but I think it is good to sometimes take...
Here are a few questions I’ve been thinking about over the past year or so. I admit, the older I get the deeper I go, but I think it is good to sometimes take...
“Getting fired is nature’s way to telling you that you had the wrong job in the first place.” ~ Hal Lancaster, in The Wall Street Journal I want to talk about job loss. These...
Authors / Book Publishing / Literary Agents / Writing Tips
by Murphy · Published March 31, 2011 · Last modified September 3, 2014
(graphic source) “Every time an Oscar is given out, an agent gets his wings.” ~ Kathy Bates In my lifetime I’ve pitched my mom on why she should let me stay out later, potential...
“You’re running away? Let me help you pack.” ~ Mom My first book, “Mother Knows Best – Wit and Wisdom From Idaho Moms,” is now being printed and will be in my sweaty little...
Magazine Writing / Work / Writing Tips
by Murphy · Published February 23, 2011 · Last modified May 3, 2014
(graphic source) “There are, it seems, two kinds of editors. The first kind cares mainly about himself, about how his editing performance reflects on him and getting ahead or getting stroked or getting to...
I’ve often wondered what would happen if I ever became incapacitated and couldn’t do my writing. What if I broke a finger or an arm or my wrist? How would I do my...
Magazine Writing / Work / Writing Tips
by Murphy · Published February 10, 2011 · Last modified May 3, 2014
“Why write in a few words what you can write in many.” ~ Patti Murphy Over the years I’ve fretted over meeting, as close as possible, the word count my editors give me when...
Magazine Writing / Work / Writing Tips
by Murphy · Published February 2, 2011 · Last modified May 3, 2014
“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” Â ~ Sylvia Plath...
by Murphy · Published December 31, 2010 · Last modified December 30, 2014
“The road to success is always under construction.” ~ Lily Tomlin I’ve always felt there is a “path” that I am destined to follow in my life and if I just found that path...
Career Happiness / Inspire / Work
by Murphy · Published December 28, 2010 · Last modified September 3, 2014
Today’s prompt is from Tara Sophia Mohr: Achieve. What’s the thing you most want to achieve next year? How do you imagine you’ll feel when you get it? Free? Happy? Complete? Blissful? Write...
This is the time of year when all the lists are trotted out as a way to look back and tell us what we did, said, thought, ate, and wore in the past...
The campfire crackles and spits sparks into the black night sky and I watch as the tiny orange dots float up, up, toward the silvery moon and stars, like little fireflies lilting and meandering...
“Friendship is a sheltering tree.”  ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge I’m participating in a month-long blogging challenge called Reverb10 during which I am posting a response to a writing prompt from 31 different authors. The goal of the...
“God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December.” ~ James Matthew Barrie, creator of Peter Pan I’m participating in a month-long blogging challenge called Reverb10 during which I am posting a response...
“We think good ideas to death, when we should be acting them to life.” ~ Brian G. Jett “A new idea is like a child. It’s easier to conceive than to deliver.” ~ Ted...
One of my favorite movies is the 1946 holiday classic “It’s a Wonderful Life.” The movie centers on George Bailey, a kind man who has always been there to help others, but has grown...
Career Happiness / Essay / Inspire
by Murphy · Published November 20, 2010 · Last modified May 22, 2018
“Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will be become the person you believe you were meant to be.” George Sheehan Success… Is it a place we arrive at, or is it made...
“Job security is gone. The driving force of a career must come from the individual.” ~ Homa Bahrami If you have left your full-time job and found yourself piecing and patch-working an income together...
“Write drunk, edit sober.” ~ Ernest Hemingway One of the biggest challenges facing a lot of writers including myself is to “let it all hang out” as we are writing. In fact, as...
Career Happiness / Essay / Inspire
by Murphy · Published October 23, 2010 · Last modified May 22, 2018
You’re only here for a short visit. Don’t hurry, don’t worry, and stop to smell the flowers along the way.” ~Walter Hagen This past summer I was puttering around in my garden  —  pulling weeds, snipping...