Anne Faye

I visited a friend in Holyoke, MA today and as I was leaving, I noticed that this Church/house was for sale! At first, I thought that it was still set up as a Church and would need some serious renovation, but when I looked it up at home, I discovered it has already been renovated. I love this place! I'm hoping to actually go see it. Oh, it is totally out of my price range and impractical for my family and the location isn't the best, but . . . to live here! It has beauty and history and I don't think you could be here and not be inspired. My other thought was to buy it and have it be an artists / writers retreat. I've always thought it would be nice to have a drop-in type of place where creative people could just come and work and be around other creative people. I looked up the history of the Church. It turns out it was The Highlands Methodist Episcopal Church. You can read more here: http://www.holyokemass.com/transcript/church/ch9.html . Unless someone ...

I received an invitation to Stage 32 today - a new social network for members of the film, television and theater communities (including writers). Part of membership is that I am supposed to invite 5 other people. If any of you would like to be a member, please message me (AnneMFaye at gmail.com or leave a comment) with your email address. I'll be happy to send you one.

Looking for a perfect last-minute gift? How about writing a letter telling somebody special just what they mean to you. I read a wonderful article by Jon Maksik in Living magazine (unfortunately the article isn't on-line) about how every Christmas and birthday since the year his son was born, he wrote a letter to him, chronicling what was going on in his life and reiterating his love. In this era of modern technology, letters are largely disappearing. Email and texts are great. They allow us to communicate with ease and across great distances. I wouldn't want to go back to life without it. But, most of these simply fade into the great virtual void. Sure, they can be printed and kept, but how many actually are? A handwritten letter is tangible and lasting. It can be tucked into the pages of a journal or kept in a special box. It can be opened and read many years later and the reader is transported back in time. It is special. And today, it is even more precious. Write s...

You may have heard this story of Captain James Arruda Henry, but it definitely bears repeating. He learned to read and write in his 90s and just wrote his autobiography. Just goes to show, it is NEVER too late to write that story you've always wanted to put on paper. This man is an inspiration. To find out more, please visit fishermanslanguage.com

I have a story that I need to seriously rewrite. Honestly, the process scares me a bit - much more than the initial writing did. That was fun! This will be painful. I came across this quote from Stephen King in the January 2012 issue of Writer's Digest : When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revising a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering children, but it must be done.

Check out my latest post on the Catholic Writer's Guild Blog: The Value of 15 Minutes a Day