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At first, I told myself it was just like sending your kid away to college. The difference is that you can always count on your kid to wander back home from time to time. They always need to do their laundry or they need some extra money or maybe they just get tired of TV dinners or their own cooking and want a home cooked meal.

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Carla’s foot jammed hard on the brake pedal as the BMW in front of her suddenly stopped, the lukewarm Cafe Verona sluicing across her sweater. ‘A signal might have been nice’, she muttered, brushing ineffectually at the mocha stains now decorating the front of the previously spotless cashmere. This jerk owed her a cleaning, although she doubted even a professional could restore the garment to its’ original soft rose perfection. She glared through the windshield at the now stopped ‘Beemer’. The vehicle remained, if not totally motionless, at least lacking in forward motion despite the absence of anything to impede its’ progress. Carla’s foul mood depened. ‘What the…..’, she whispered. She was right up on the other car’s bumper, no way to go around him and a glance in her rear view mirror told her that the predictable back up of cars behind her made it impossible to back up. A horn somewhere in the increasingly long line of trailing vehicles blared. Soon, it would be joined by others. Honking horns where just like potato chips, you could never have just one. The resulting symphony of sound would eventually be accompanied by waving fists and jeering insults. It was the nature of the beast. Carla massaged her temples against the inevitable headache she could already feel forming. Welcome to Brooklyn. Not that it would have been any different in any other major city. Certainly not in downtown San Francisco and definiteely not in the insanity that was downtown Los Angeles.

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If I hadn’t already been awake when I opened my front, the blast of frigid air that greeted me would have brought me to my senses immediately. Balefully, I surveyed the frost encrusted hedge and crystal layered lawn. I am not a fan of Winter, and the appearance of frost informed me it was right around the corner. I live at sea level, the Pacific coast being only sixteen miles away, so snow is generally a stranger, satisfied to remain at a reasonable distance until I go looking for it. I’m not saying we don’t ever get snow, we do, but it is so infrequent that, on the few occasions when we do get a few flakes, it makes the front page of all the local newspapers.

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• Hackety Hack!

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Perhaps the last time you encountered a writing prompt was while you attended school and now the last thing you want to do is think about is facing another one. While many people consider prompts as a form of torture that school teachers use on their unwilling students, yet prompts are often willingly used, even embraced, by experienced writers. If you do not see how writing prompts can be useful to you then consider these the following benefits.

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There are three things you absolutely must focus on in order to survive as a freelance writer. You need to focus on your money. You need to focus on marketing. And beneath them all, you need to focus on delivering quality. Great thoughts. First two are fairly obvious. But the third definitely needs to be explained. In this article I’m going to give you three things you need to do in order to focus on delivering quality.

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Based on the title, you would think that I am experienced at feeling inadequate. But of course I’m not… really, no really. I have loads of confidence. Just back off, OK?

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It’s been debated for hundreds of years – can fiction writing actually be taught to someone? Or is it a matter of natural born talent? Is the world of fiction too deeply embedded in creativity to be brought down to elements that can be taught?

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If you want to become an author of children’s books, you need to be able to create new characters and craft stories that grab the attention of young readers. Jackie French is an Australian author of 132 published books. She has been writing for over 17 years and now reveals her secrets to longevity and success as a children’s writer.

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