E.R. COOK

Author. Artist. Dreamer.

  • Life as a PTPW: An Excellent Fear

    About two months ago in my local writing group, someone mentioned this book festival that was coming up. It was nice because it was open to all authors, and was close to my house. I have never done an in person book festival of any kind as an author, but since I’m trying to push…

  • Finding Your Voice: Fighting the Fear of Sounding Stupid

    Finding Your Voice: Fighting the Fear of Sounding Stupid

    Life as a Part-Time Professional Writer One of the things I’ve dealt with in life are people that discount your opinions or your knowledge. We’ve all been there. You’re having a conversation with a person about a particular topic, you offer your knowledge or thoughts, they get an odd look on their face, and come…

  • The First SH**** Draft is Done!

    The First SH**** Draft is Done!

    It’s been two years (and counting) since I published Planetary Feedlot. Even though I had a pretty good idea where I wanted to go with the sequel at the time, it seems like it’s taken forever to get it on the page. Especially since my debut novel was supposed to be just that, a stand-alone…

  • Life as a Part-Time Professional Writer: Debut Novel Realizations

    Life as a Part-Time Professional Writer: Debut Novel Realizations

    AKA: Trying to Climb the mountain in Flip flops When I published my first book (I say it that way because it will not be the last), my boyfriend got all excited. He loved my book, and he was sure everyone else would too. In his brain, we’d be rich in no time. No, he…

  • What’s Up? Summer Edition

    What’s Up? Summer Edition

    Ever have one of those moments where life gets busy and you have to choose what to stop focusing on? The “I’ll call them next week” or “I’ll deal with that when things slow down” moments? Then you blink and you realize its been two months (or six) and you still haven’t done the thing?…

  • Learning my craft: 15 minute story writing

    Learning my craft: 15 minute story writing

    So they say that writing is a craft, and like any craft, it takes time to get good. You need to practice and learn new skills and techniques. Find out your strengths and weaknesses. There’s a lot of ways to do this for writing, according to the internet. But I recently remembered something I tried…

  • Playing with AI: a winter poem

    There’s been a lot of talk lately about AI being used for writing and creating art. Some are excited and intrigued by the new technology. Others are worried about copyrights and the death of creativity. I’m not really sure which side of the debate I fall on, mostly because I’ve not experienced using it. So,…

  • Life as a PTPW: When inspiration won’t strike

    Writer’s block is as old as time. In fact, it seems cliché to write about it. I don’t have any sure-fire cures, and there’s nothing I can add that you couldn’t find with a simple search. But what I can talk about is that for all we hear and talk about writer’s block, we don’t…

  • Snowstorms and candles: Weather moods and writing

    I’ve gotten a gift this week. Twice I’ve woken up to snow. As I stepped into my cold office, lit the candles and looked out at the darkened landscape, I could just make out the small flakes drifting down in the early dawn light, muted gray by the clouds but allowing me to see the…

  • My Life as a PTPW: Making words while the sun shines

    My Life as a PTPW: Making words while the sun shines

    As I sit typing this, I have a Roomba running around my feet knocking into chairs. A bread machine with a loose something in it is noisily making dough for dinner rolls. The oven is steam cleaning. I’m contemplating if its worth getting the fall decorations (that I meant to put out in September) out…