Similes

Today in our Nitty Gritty Grammar Lesson we will be looking at one of the fun forms of figurative language-Similes! Before we go there, I’d like to share what a Nitty Gritty Grammar Lesson is. Google’s online dictionary defines “Nitty Gritty” this way: the most important aspects or practical details of a subject or situation. “Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty of similes!” A simile describes the subject by using uses the words “like” or “as” to compare 2 different things which have one thing in common. A common simile is, “It was as soft as a baby’s bottom.” Anyone who Read more…


Badge for Insecure Writer's Support Group

It’s the 1st Wednesday of the month again. That’s when I take part in Alex J. Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group. Thank you to this month’s IWSG co-hosts for the August 7 posting of the IWSG: Renee Scattergood, Sadira Stone, Jacqui Murray, Tamara Narayan, and LG Keltner! This month, rather than answering the optional question of the month, I will be talking about starting over as a writer. Starting Over Since Dan died on April 26th, it has been really hard for me to find the “on” button. Finding time to write in the midst of starting over has been difficult. There have been a few Read more…


Prioritize Your Passion

Do you prioritize your passion? Or do you let other things get in the way of the creative endeavor that fuels your excitement? Today we will be looking at how to prioritize your passion and make time for your dreams. I’ll be sharing the artist/curator who inspired this post with his timely advice as well as how to Recently, I took a class from the Emerging Curator’s Institute, with my daughter, Summer. The class was called “Curating as Artistic Practice.” This was an ideal experience for my daughter who is going to school to study Art History and Museum Studies. Read more…


Badge for Insecure Writer's Support Group

It’s the 1st Wednesday of the month again. That’s when I take part in Alex J. Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group. Thank you to this month’s IWSG co-hosts for the July 3 posting of the IWSG: Erika Beebe, Natalie Aguirre, Jennifer Lane, MJ Fifield, Lisa Buie-Collard, and Ellen @ The Cynical Sailor! Today I’ll be talking about the inspiration for personal traits in the characters I write as I answer this month’s optional IWSG question: What personal traits have you written into your character(s)? For this month’s question, I will formulate my answers using the only fiction work I’ve completed, “The Nature of Murder”. I haven’t finished Read more…


Diseases and Grammar

Today in our Nitty Gritty Grammar Lesson we will be looking at diseases and grammar. Before we go there, I’d like to share what a Nitty Gritty Grammar Lesson is. Google’s online dictionary defines “Nitty Gritty” this way: the most important aspects or practical details of a subject or situation. “let’s get down to the nitty-gritty of finding a job” The Minneapolis Star and Tribune[1] Published this article about the top 10 reasons good grammar is important. Beyond High School It seems that by the time we are old enough to recognize the importance of good grammar and admit that our own Read more…


Speech and Speaking

A year ago, I was asked to speak to our local Rotary Club. My speech topic was, What Not to Say to Someone who has Cancer. I tweaked the speech until I finally felt like it was as good as it would get. Then I practiced this speech several times a day, every day, for a couple of weeks. I am always worried that I will freeze up, so I have to have my entire speech in front of me, typed out word for word. I’m also afraid that I will drop my pages or rely too heavily on them, Read more…


Badge for Insecure Writer's Support Group

It’s the 1st Wednesday of the month again. That’s when I take part in Alex J. Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group. Thank you to this month’s IWSG co-hosts:  Diane Burton, Kim Lajevardi, Sylvia Ney, Sarah Foster, Jennifer Hawes, and Madeline Mora-Summonte! Today I’ll be talking about genre as I answer June 5th’s optional IWSG Day Question: Of all the genres you read and write, which is your favorite to write in and why? Sci-Fi Genre with Dystopian Elements There are 3 genres I enjoy writing. Even though I don’t read a lot of it, sci-fi is one of my favorites, particularly those with dystopian Read more…


Accounting Tips for a Small Business Owner

Accounting is one of the most important parts of running a small business. Unfortunately, so many small business owners leave some of the most critical details of accounting for a time when they are forced to think about them. This can lead to inefficiencies in your business, the mismanagement of finances, and missed opportunities. The following are a few tips to help small businesses owners manage their accounting better. Record All of Your Expenses Times can get hectic when running a small business, and it can be easy to lose track of your expenses if you are not careful to record Read more…


The 2019 A to Z Blogging Challenge didn’t go as expected for me. I spent the months of January and February writing posts for both, Facing Cancer with Grace and Heather Erickson Author/Writer/Speaker. I scheduled them to publish automatically, as I have done in past years, planning to use April to comment on other A to Z bloggers’ posts. In past years, this has been extremely helpful. This year A to Z would take a back seat. In March, my husband’s cancer took a dramatic turn for the worse. By the end of March, after repeated visits to the hospital, Read more…


Badge for Insecure Writer's Support Group

It’s the 1st Wednesday of the month again. That’s when I take part in Alex J. Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group. Thank you to this month’s IWSG co-hosts: Lee Lowery, Juneta Key, Yvonne Ventresca, and T. Powell Coltrin! Today I will be writing about my experience writing about my husband’s cancer journey on his CaringBridge blog, as I answer the IWSG Day question for May: What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? Maybe it doesn’t qualify as an early experience, but it has by far, been the experience with the most impact. I always loved writing, but I didn’t know Read more…


Write it down

I had a story idea yesterday. I was particularly excited about it because it was the 2nd idea I had this week, and both were brilliant. I was a creative machine! But, I didn’t write it down, so I forgot it.  It got me wondering how often a brilliant idea is forgotten because we don’t write it down in time. It’s important to keep track of Zen-inspired ideas—those that hit you spontaneously when you aren’t even trying to come up with them. The A to Z Blogging Challenge I’m doing double duty this month during the A to Z Blogging Read more…


Your Charisma

My daughter Sam has charisma. When I asked her when she first knew she had charisma, she said, “It’s like knowing the color of your skin. You might not know what to call it, but you know you’ve got it.” She has always known how to get what she wants. At the age of 8, she struck up a conversation with a comedian who was selling CDs of his Christian comedy act. She asked him about one of the CDs that had a scratch on the cover. She convinced him (with very little effort) to give her the CD. Then, Read more…


see beneath the surface

One of the few arguments my husband and I had was about something beneath the surface. At the time, we were dealing with some discipline issues with our kids. They were typical teenaged issues, but one of our daughters, who is autistic, was taking it personally. So, I felt he was being too hard on her. Normally, it would have been fine, but my concern was that she might question his love for her. Yet, I didn’t want to say this. I didn’t want to say, “What about when you die? What if she doesn’t feel loved by you, and Read more…


Pain Points

Mills & Boon have been publishing romance novels for over a hundred years, yet it was an unknown self-published author, E. L. James, who hit the best seller list with her “50 Shades of Grey.” For millions of people around the world, it had the “WOW” factor. Somehow it has hit an important known (or unknown) need or want, also known as “pain points.” That’s a little bit of wordplay for readers familiar with the book’s premise. Think a challenge your ideal user is facing. What are their biggest pain points? What would really “wow” them? The A to Z Read more…


visualization for confidence

When my daughter Summer was about a semester into her college experience at the age of 16, she knew what field she wanted to work in. With great confidence, she asked her professor, “How do I get your job?” The professor told her. Since then, she has been on track to work as an art historian. Visualizing success can you the confidence you need to reach your goals. In 2012, social psychologist, Amy Cuddy gave the TED Talk, Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are.[1] In it, she hypothesizes that your body language not only affects the way you Read more…


Pancakes

Today we made pancakes from scratch. They were truly the very best pancakes we’ve ever had. I’d gotten some blueberries on sale and intended to make blueberry pancakes for the family, but within an hour of being home from arriving home from the store, the berries were discovered by one of my daughters, who quickly gobbled half of them up. I let a few days go by, considering the matter closed, but another of my daughters was persistent. She continued to ask for pancakes. She has a terrible cold right now, so I could hardly refuse. My oldest was at Read more…


Trust Your Intuition

About 12 years ago, I was in the market for a new vehicle. I was newly separated from my ex-husband and a little overwhelmed by the car-buying process. I had done my research, though, and found a few candidates online. One of them was advertised wrong. When I called the number in the ad, I got a New Hampshire car dealership rather than the dealership right down the road in our Twin Cities suburb. Hmmm. My intuition told me I could get  good deal on this van. I quickly went down to the local dealer who actually had the minivan.  Read more…


simple ideas

Thinking of A to Z posts for both of my blogs is always hard for me to do. This year, I really wanted to keep my posts somewhat shorter than usual and have them require less research to write. I did some brainstorming and came up with several simple ideas for each blog. Theme Ideas for Heather Erickson Author/Writer/Speaker: Heroes and Zeros: Writing Great Characters Novel Ideas: How to Write a Great Novel No Nonsense Nonfiction: How to Write a Great Nonfiction Book Your Personal Narrative: Memoir in Motion Cool titles, huh? I saved them for next year. Instead, I Read more…


Reframe the problem

I recently decided to reframe the problem of explaining what it’s like to live with cancer, by creating a complicated graph. In January, we had a crazy week, down at the Mayo Clinic. We had gone thinking my husband would be in a new trial. Then, the doctors discovered what they thought were more brain metastases. These would disqualify him from the trial. So, they cancelled his biopsy and other testing appointments. Meanwhile, the polar vortex hit Minnesota plunging temperatures to record lows. It was so cold that a man died in the very town where we were staying because Read more…


Question Everything

Many years ago I ended up being the president of the homeschool support group at our church. I say, “ended up,” because after attending only 1 meeting, I agreed to become the vice president and then the president resigned 2 weeks later. So my unexpected rise to power left me feeling pretty overwhelmed. I had to question everything in order to come up with a plan to improve the way we dd things. There were some problems As we began to question everything, we started with the attendance. It was really low. There were only about 5 of us. Yet, Read more…

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