Write with Author NJ Miller

Image by Christel from Pixabay When it’s cold I feel refreshed and invigorated for a little while until I feel cold to the bone. When it’s cold and a chill sets in, it feels cozy to put on a warm sweater and have a hot cup of tea. When it’s cold, I can bundle up and get warm. If it’s really cold where my feet feel frozen in my shoes, and I didn’t wear a hat or gloves, then I feel icy cold.  When it’s cold, I might see white fluffy snow on the ground or hear the sound of hail hitting the roof. From my warm habitat, I step out on the porch where I can watch the heavens emptying their wares. Clouds, rain, ice, and snow are sometimes predictable, but no one really knows when water will change to ice or blue skies will fill with gray storm clouds. I see predictions and I try to dress for what might come. But when it’s cold, it might catch me unprepared. When I have a cold glass of water or soda on a sizzling day, I plop some ice cubes in my drink and bask in the joy of a cold container...

I feel so scattered in my writing. I randomly write a piece of my science fiction story as a thought runs through my mind. I quickly capture a place or feeling from a trip or conversation. Anything in my life can be part of my story. A fear, a beautiful place, a train ride; they are all parts of my story. The story is bits of my life from a time and place that are not mine. The people transform before me as my protagonist takes her journey.    Until I read that the famous Roald Dahl was always jotting down tidbits that might grow into a story, I thought I was unorganized and probably would never be able to put my story together. I am pleased that it is a writing style used by one of the most imaginative writers.   As Shannon Maughan writes in Publishers Weekly to honor this prolific author, “Legendary author Roald Dahl (1916–1990) was, very literally, an idea man. He was forever jotting notes—kernels and tidbits that might one day grow into a story.”   Although I am ...

  When I took my first bite of crispy Puffins cereal this morning it reminded me of the crunch I hear while walking across a pile of autumn leaves. Oooh, what a sound. I can feel the cool breeze across my face anticipating the cooler weather. With the end-of-summer temperatures still reaching 100 degrees, I will enjoy my cereal covered with fruit and cold milk and picture colorful fall leaves.     Taking my first bite of creamy coconut yogurt, I remember the white-capped mountain tops in Colorado Springs or stepping into the fluffy white snow beneath my feet. If my yogurt was freeze dried it would look like white flakes of snow fluttering across the darkening evening sky.    A bite of a soft colorful chocolate chip M&M cookie warm from the oven reminds me of a spring morning with the warm sun on my back and the bright blue sky above. I look up to see a sprinkling of color in the speckles of white clouds and a rainbow of color from the sunrise.    T...