Tina Haapala, Excuse Editor

It’s amazing what you can get done in 30 minutes. A few weeks ago, I drove my stepson to his guitar lesson. Instead of spending my time there, losing another round of Words with Friends, I decided to try and be productive. I had a few ambitious goals for that limited time frame, but rather than think about it too much, I just waved goodbye and went about my business. It was time for an eyebrow wax. I don’t torture myself in this particular way very often, but it really was time. I rolled the dice and drove to a salon a block or so from the guitar shop. Amanda was able to help me right away, and when the ripping and tweezing was done, I still had 15, maybe even 17,  minutes until I had to head back. Do I dare? I had to go to the post office. The horror! As I walked in, I knew immediately I had pressed my luck. As usual, there was a line creeping along at lava’s pace. But wait, holy kiosk, Batman! I didn’t have succumb to the herd, I could weigh my envelope and get the...

Image: Pixomar / FreeDigitalPhotos.net   We are a week into 2011! How is it going with your resolutions, goals, targets--whatever you call the things tied to the beginning of a New Year that keep you motivated? Of course, I am hoping that your word counts are rich and full--an early springtime of Creativity! But what about those other, non-writing goals? Like staying healthy? Keeping our butts in the chairs, while crucial to our writing, can be detrimental to our "bottom lines." But don't use your love of writing as an excuse to stay unhealthy.* This past holiday season, my husband and I took part in a local contest to see how much weight we could LOSE between December 1 and January 12. I plan to write more about it later in my personal blog , but one thing I've learned is that seemingly impossible obstacles can be overcome if your mindset can change. How else can I explain how my husband (a lover of all things chocolate) has spent the season of cookies and ...

The popularity of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books is beyond extraordinary. What started out as a multi- rejected book idea has turned into a multi-million dollar book empire. More than 110 million Chicken Soup for the Soul books have been sold. Many of the books have been translated to 40 different languages. I'm proud that my personal essays have been included in some of these books, and I hope to continue being a Chicken Soup contributor. My Story I thought I would share a bit about being published in these collections. I'm very happy with my Chicken Soup experiences, and part of that may be that I went into it with little expectations at first. I started with them because I had a few stories that seemed to fit what they were looking for, and I thought I had nothing to lose. Unlike some of the other markets and contests I was looking at, submitting to Chicken Soup could be done at no cost to me, and I didn't even need to worry about a postage stamp, because they ha...

The excuses we make about our writing are often reflected in excuses we make in other parts of our lives. Here's an example, "based on a true story" (or two). Recently, I left work and headed for the gym. I really was not in the mood to go. It seemed pointless: I sweat inside the somewhat too hot gym just to leave and hit the too hot outside, with humidity, and get in my too hot car that cools off just in time for me to pull into my too hot garage. Recently, I had decided that I was going to set aside an hour a day for my writing. The first day, I was pretty sure that Today wasn't the best day to start this endeavor. I was sure that the writer's block that plagued me the last time I sat down would just come to visit again, so what was the point? Anyway, I was not in the mood to go to the gym. I got to the first light. Right was the way to the gym, left, home. I couldn't get over to the left. Cars in the way. I started up my computer anyway, thinking that ...