Tag: author blogs

Gender Bender

And now for something completely different.

Will the real L.A. Lewandowski please stand up?

Am I really who I say I am? None of you have ever met me. Am I a creation of my own making, a project of my inner Pygmalion? Is the face that smiles back at you me, or am I actually an eighty year old Polish woman wearing a babushka smelling invitingly of stuffed cabbage and pierogi? Admit it, you can’t really be sure.

Or can you? There is one thing for certain, my friends, I write like a girl. The color of my cocktail seeps through the pages, pooling into a pretty, pink puddle. It’s delicious, I must admit. I am not able to feel like a man, and I have never wanted to be one. There is only one exception – a cameo as a big, burly hockey player, smashing opponents into the boards and scoring the winning goal. But I digress. Continue reading “Gender Bender”

Commas Are A Girl’s Best Friend

Lois Lewandowski
Comma Addict Lois Lewandowski

Until I began writing I didn’t realize that I spoke in commas. Commas allow me to link the disparate thoughts in my head and confuse my husband who doesn’t know exactly when he can join the conversation.  I also love to sprinkle commas liberally throughout whatever I write, using their pleasing curves at will. Editors love me.

I should never have been possessed by this obsession. I was inoculated religiously in Catholic school to understand the judicious use of commas. Sister Leo Veronica was the punctuation warden, the veiled mistress of the comma, and we students bent to her will. How disappointed she would be to see the level I’ve descended to. How shocked and scandalized to witness my obsession with the comma’s seductive shape! Continue reading “Commas Are A Girl’s Best Friend”

Man, I Love Words

Yvonne Hertzberger
Author Yvonne Hertzberger

As writers, words are our currency, an unfortunate term perhaps, considering so few of us can actually eke out a living with them.

Yesterday, on LinkedIn a few of us pondered the correct way to spell a word. (wet-stone, whetstone, wetstone – you get the idea). That was fun and got me thinking about words. I remembered my grade eleven English class. Our assignment was to write a short story. I wrote one I was proud of. It had great characters, a gripping plot and lots of tension. Even the setting added to the tone. Now, I liked that teacher, respected her. And she gave me a good mark, 80% I think. Her only critique was that my prose was “terse”. I was crushed. One single-syllable word and nothing else mattered. Continue reading “Man, I Love Words”

Following Your Passion

Author L.A. Lewandowski

I don’t want to introduce myself by being trite or speaking in clichés. But in reading the previous introductory posts of my fellow writers here on Indies Unlimited one thing is very apparent: we’ve all pursued writing as a passion or maybe even as the great love of our lives. And in the case of Indies Unlimited, I feel as if I’ve been given a Golden Ticket, a la Willy Wonka. Thank you Stephen Hise for the generous opportunity.

For me, the knowledge that I was a writer was not as innate as some of my contemporaries. I did have passions, starting with my desire to be a professional ballet dancer. Realizing I wasn’t good enough to feed myself caused a stunning bipolar reaction: why not become an attorney instead? That didn’t work out either. Law school is grueling not to mention expensive and I was already supporting myself and soon to be married. Second passion down the drain. Continue reading “Following Your Passion”