Robin Brande, Author, Dog Lover, Coffee and Chocolate Addict. Living an Interesting Life.

Fiction author Robin Brande talks about writing, reading, and other vital matters

For writers, readers, and independent thinkers–book talk for readers and writers, life chats when we need them, writers’ motivational articles, secret behind-the-scenes stories from the publishing trenches, and more.

Archive for the 'Life' Category

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On creativity, being wrong, and having Shakespeare (the student) in your English class

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

I love this lecture! Watched it once already this morning, and will now go watch it again.
I especially love the line, “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.”
And I especially, especially love the whole discussion of what it would be like to have a young William Shakespeare [...]

Meanness, betrayal, and other hazards of success

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

This week’s installment of Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s Freelancer’s Survival Guide shares some pretty ugly stories of what can happen to you once you become successful–or at least more successful than your “friends.”
Really fascinating, and some great advice for dealing with it. Enjoy!

Why I think science girls are the coolest

Monday, January 18th, 2010

There’s a website out there called GirlMogul.com, and it celebrates and encourages smart girls. So you know I’m loving that.
Even more to love: This month their book club is featuring my novel FAT CAT. As part of the kickoff, I wrote an essay to the girls that you might like to read.
It [...]

FAT CAT recipes? We gotcher recipes.

Monday, December 14th, 2009

Lately a lot of people have been asking me for recipes from FAT CAT. Some of the recipes in the book are ones I made up and experimented with, some are from other sources, including chef and cookbook author Colleen Patrick-Goudreau of www.compassionatecooks.com. I loved Colleen’s work so much, I asked her to do the [...]

Rude Family Comment Bingo

Saturday, November 28th, 2009

I don’t have this problem, because my family is lovely, but I know that many people extra-enjoy the holidays because they have to be around their bickering, critical, snide, judgmental parents, in-laws, and siblings. Oh, what fun.
But I saw this great solution in the New York Times the other day, and thought I’d pass [...]

How being a fat girl led me to write FAT CAT

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

In case you were wondering.

Report from the field

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

Just got in from our short backpacking trip. Massive head cold. Sore throat, possible fever, head full of more liquid than I knew the head could hold.
Spending this one hotel day catching up on over 200 e-mails, doing laundry, resupplying. Leaving in the morning for our longer backpacking excursion in the Wind [...]

Into the wild again

Monday, August 10th, 2009

One of the sweetest notes I’ve ever gotten from a boy was in fifth grade, when Tony T. wrote: “You would make a great author. You’re a great student too. You get your work done too.”
And though of course I love the part about how I would make a great author, it’s [...]

Flipping the fear switch to OFF

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

I do this thing, and I wondered if anyone else does this thing, or if it would be useful to you to consider it for your own purposes.
It started a few years ago when I was sitting here one summer, sweltering in the Arizona heat, and I happened to read an article about backpacking in [...]

For those who are too busy to Twitter

Sunday, May 3rd, 2009

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