Posts by Joy Held

“Your Writing As a Gift to Those You Love & Care About”

Monday 8 December 2025

Hey there, writer! This year give your writing as a gift to those you love. Lots of crafters give their creations as gifts. Writers can too. Here are some special projects you can quickly and charmingly turn into presents for the holidays.

WRITE A SHORT STORY WITH A RELATIVE OR SPECIAL PET AS THE STAR

Your wonderful talent with words easily translates into a short story or children’s book featuring a relative or special pet as the protagonist. It doesn’t have to be long or have a complicated plot arc, just a story about an adventure or a real-life event in the family history. You know the drill: start with a character with a problem to solve then say, “What if?” Illustrations in a digital book are easier than you think. Family photos from your phone will add personality and images from royalty-free sites such as The Graphics Fairy or iStock will more than supply you with ideas and appropriate art work to support the story.

CREATE A SERIAL STORY WITH A CHAPTER A MONTH

You only have to write one chapter to hook your reader for this gift of writing then write 11 more chapters that you send to the recipient once a month until next November when the romance is fulfilled, the mystery is solved, or the journey is complete.

GREETING CARDS WITH WRITERLY QUOTES, IMAGES, AND MESSAGES

Or the cards can be blank inside. Blank, do-it-yourself greeting cards are available at most craft supply stores such as Michael’s.

OF COURSE, SIGNED COPIES OF YOUR PUBLISHED BOOK

Make this special by adding a letter to the recipient about how much you appreciate everything they do in support of your writing.

HOLIDAY CARDS & LETTERS FOR SERVICE MEMBERS

As the daughter and wife of members of various branches of the military, I think this gift of writing is one of the best you can offer. Thoughtful messages of support and appreciation are welcome. Places to submit include (check the deadlines at the websites):

Military Holiday Card Challenge

Wounded Warrior Project

Happy writing and happy holidays!

~Joy

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My ideas are not ever meant as a substitute for consulting with a qualified health professional.

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JOY E. HELD is an author, educator, editor, book coach, entrepreneur, and literary citizen responsible for this site and its contents.

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Friday 31 October 2025

#5 If Dracula Kept a Diary

May 2-Rainy as usual, but maybe that will clean the drive path in front of the castle before Mr. Harker arrives tomorrow. I wish he hadn’t left London so late. Something about trial notes to finish. It is a long journey to Transylvania. With only one stagecoach every day it will be the middle of the damn night when I get him back here. Must remember to put brandy and an extra blanket in the carriage. I hope that ridiculous woman at the Golden Krone remembers to give Harker my letter.

May 4-Snow. A little early for this kind of chill, which keeps the peasants out of the forest. Makes things more challenging, but I’ll manage. Englishmen require too much luggage! How long does H think he’s staying here? H is paler than I expected. But I like the look. And afraid of my dogs. I thought he’d never stop quivering on the ride up the mountain.

May 5-H liked the baked chicken and drank an entire bottle of wine for supper.

May 8-H cut himself shaving. I nearly lost it. He didn’t need to shave for me, but it caught me off guard. Suddenly, I couldn’t control myself. Why in the hell is the Englishman wearing a crucifix of all things and where did he get it? The zap also caught me off guard. I regret throwing H’s shaving mirror out of the window. I just couldn’t stop myself.

May 16-Certain H saw me leaving the other night. I told him not to wander around the castle. I told him to stay in his room and not to fall asleep in any other room. It’s his own fault. If I hadn’t smelled his fear, I might not have made it to his rescue. Those girls will be the death of me. This man does not follow instructions well. I hope he hasn’t made careless errors on my London property purchase. Ah, what’s done is done. This man is mine, ladies.

June 1-Had to hide all the paper. Judging from H’s journals, he is pretty shook up about having to stay here another month. I could let him write that letter for help he craves and tell him I mailed it for him. Not. Decided to get his traveling clothes cleaned for him. I think I forgot to tell him this.

June 30-Damn! He found me in the shipping crate. Meddlesome fool. Do all English lawyers behave so badly? Have to go to London without him for now. Why does everything have to be such a bother?

***

…until next year…

Thursday 30 October 2025

#4 Unreliable Narrators & Stake Drivers

I love epistolary fiction. Reading the letters, journals, diaries, and newspaper clippings allow me a deeper connection to the writer. I learned the habit from doing research for my historical fiction novels. I also really love special collection departments and their librarians. Special collections librarians are amazing sources of information and always ready to help a writer or student with research. Another topic for another day.

Consequently, I am drawn to collecting and reading the diaries and letters of published authors. I enjoy reading about what was going on in their lives and the world when they worked on a particular book. I’m currently rereading A Writer’s Diary written by Virginia Woolf and published/edited by her husband after she died. I love Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters by John Steinbeck and have just started reading Letters of Edna St. Vincent Millay. I haunt used book sales for the older versions of these kinds of books because there is less editorial commentary than there is in contemporary reprints of such works. I like to come to my own conclusions.

This passion partially explains why I annually reread Dracula by Bram Stoker. I’m not so enamored of vampire literature. It’s the journals, letters, and newspaper clippings that Stoker uses as a narrative technique that draw me to the book. I’m more interested in the style and conventions he chose to tell the story with over the romanticism of vampiric folklore. While the diaries and journals of published authors are written in their own hand, it’s a straightforward connection to a new perspective on their published works. In Stoker’s case with Dracula, he chose one of the most difficult literary conventions. The unreliable narrator.

The unreliable narrator in literature is exactly what it says: a character telling a story, but you shouldn’t trust everything that character says. And what better way to stay true to a character’s viewpoint (and their own opinions about themselves and the story’s actions) than explaining the plot through their fictitious accounts—their diaries?

Some people tell the truth in their personal writings. Others are prone to embellishments. Everyone expresses an opinion about what happened. That’s called reflective writing. It is cathartic and authentic, written from the heart and emotions but not always from the intellect or common sense. Personal writing is for the writer at the time, although they generally have a suspicion that someone will read their journals after the holder of the pen has died. I write notes in my journals all the time to my children and grandchild for them to read long after I’m on my way to whatever is next after this part of my karmic journey.

The other interesting problem Stoker chose is that because of the “personal” writings used to tell the story, the author himself is forbidden to provide narrative comments on what the characters are saying and doing. He can’t narrate or explain anything in his own book because he can’t interfere with what the characters are writing then doing. He must stand back, relay the writing and deeds, then leave it to the reader to conclude as they will. Until you realize Stoker IS offering narrative commentary because he is the one writing the journals of his characters.

Each character in Dracula is unreliable because they have personal agendas that Stoker wants the reader to recognize-social justice, high morality, sexual repression, and the greater good of society. They each wish for a position in life other than what they are shackled to. They don’t want to be who they are and feel compelled to lash out at something they consider evil to assuage their own unhappiness. Happens all the time. However, most unhappy people complain in their journals and letters then go out into the world and act as normal as possible even if they secretly want to drive a stake through the heart of the devil. That’s what fiction is for.

Be well, write well!

~Joy

(Image Graphics Fairy)

Wednesday 29 October 2025

#3 Smoke & Mirrors

Have you ever been backstage at a theatre production? In the performer’s dressing room, and many times in the side wings where they wait to go on stage, are a lot of mirrors.

Dancers have a misguided reputation for being vain because they rely on mirrors as they train. Supposedly, a dancer can’t walk by a large window or even the tiniest mirror without a sideways glance at themselves. Some habits are harder to break than others.

The showstopping musical number from the Broadway musical A Chorus Line is sung by the lead character, Cassie, who is the aging chorus girl trying to make a comeback. “All I ever needed was the music and the mirror and the chance to dance for you.” Yep. That’s an amazingly accurate statement about what being a dancer means. The actress Donna McKechnie put this song and dance number on the eternal map of musical theatre’s most powerful performances because her passion for dancing, initially ballet, had nourished her soul from a very young age.

There’s no shortage of commentary and speculation about why or what Stoker intended by writing Count Dracula as invisible in mirrors. No soul. Not living. Ashamed of what he’d become. Violent at the thought of anyone looking at their reflection saying, “And this is the wretched thing that has done the mischief. It is a foul bauble of man’s vanity. Away with it!” He throws the shaving mirror out the window to shatter on the cobblestones below. As if shards of a mirror are acceptable while the whole is not?

The folklore surrounding mirrors could have influenced Stoker, but as I mentioned, writers gather and weave strands from everywhere for a long time before something appears in a story. Yes, the soul of a person is a major theme in Dracula but recall Stoker’s career as a theatre critic and business manager. Whether or not Stoker ever acted in a play isn’t documented, but once he got an all-access pass to the inner workings of what it means to be an actor, he had to have been awed by a performer’s reliance (and sometimes addiction) to their own reflection. Stoker was and never dropped his role as a critic. Someone who offers feedback to a performer…just like a mirror.

The phrase “smoke and mirrors” has been a theatrical technique since the late 18th century when magicians used it to project an image onto smoke to make the image look as if it were floating, shimmering, or hovering. If that image happened to be a person, they were called spirits and ghosts. Fast forward and the words suggest that what someone is seeing or being told should be investigated vigorously to be sure there is truth there. It’s been a go-to idiom in political commentary since the 20th century. Stoker had to have encountered the practice in 19th-century theatre because it was a very popular stage trick to make the audience believe in something that actually didn’t exist.

See where is leading?

Mirrors (not fun-house distortions) tell the truth. No matter how tiny the shard, the reflection is an exact image with an unbiased, untainted message (wicked Queen in Snow White exempted from this discussion.) This is precisely what you look like and the first impression others will have of you. That truth is the reason performers are trained to use mirrors as a means to improve and as a way to see what needs correcting. Look in the mirror. Pants unzipped. Zip. Go out on stage. The mirror also cuts down on what the critic has to complain about. All the world is a stage.

When Jonathan Harker looked into the mirror to shave then felt Count Dracula’s hand on his shoulder (a common place for the imaginary characters of angel and devil to sit) he cut himself with the razor because the “visitor” surprised him. Snuck up on him. Harker claims to have been able to see the whole room in the reflection, but he didn’t see the physical embodiment of the devil behind him. He only felt his presence in his own physical body.

First lesson in smoke and mirrors: be careful what you project for it has a truth all its own.

Be well, write well!

~Joy

(Image Graphics Fairy)

Tuesday 28 October 2025

#2 Stoker’s Day Job

Okay, so where did author Bram Stoker get the idea for the character Count Dracula? Seems like a simple enough question, but writers are not the most straight-forward of folks. We tend to noodle around as famed writing teacher Brenda Ueland called it until we finally arrive at the words “The End.” To think that there is a definitive answer to how Stoker created his main character is to ignore the life of the writer.

Bram Stoker’s day job was as the business manager to actor Henry Irving and later the Lyceum Theatre in London, England which Irving owned.

Lyceum Theatre

Before exploring how Stoker’s “real” work might have influenced his writing, let’s do a quick overview of his life.

Born: November 8, 1847 in Dublin, Ireland (Irish and a Scorpio.)

Education: 1870 Bachelor of Arts in mathematics (?) from Trinity College

First day job: Civil servant working in Dublin Castle for the British royals

First side hustle: Unpaid writer and theatre critic for the Dublin Evening Mail newspaper

First professional turning point: 1878 Because of Stoker’s review of Hamlet’s Shakespeare published in the newspaper, he meets acclaimed actor Henry Irving who offers Stoker a job as the business manager for Irving and the famed Lyceum Theatre in London

Personal life: 1878 Marries actress Florence Balcombe (who had previously been engaged to Oscar Wilde)

One child: 1879 Irving Noel Thornley (notice that Stoker’s only child is named after his boss Henry Irving)

Dracula: 1897 Published in England; 1899 published in America

Literary career: 1902-1911 Continues writing and publishing novels, lectures, & nonfiction

Deceased: April 20, 1912

To begin with, I’m impressed by a writer who can do math, but the university he obtained a Bachelor of Arts from is vague about the emphasis of the degree. Stoker claimed he graduated with “Honors in Pure Mathematics” then went on to keep the books for a major theatre company. Works for me. Obviously, Stoker was that creator.

He became interested in theatre in college but was known as an exemplary athlete in several sports. He must have recognized the importance of making a living and spending personal time on less lucrative endeavors such as writers. Reading Stoker’s life reminds me of Steven King’s beginnings as a school maintenance worker who wrote in the evenings. It’s no surprise then that Stoker worked the day job to pay the bills while writing pro bono for a local publication. Between his education and work experience and interest in theatrical arts, Stoker did what most writers do: endure reality to support our fantasies.

What does a theatre business manager do? They watch the bottom line like a hawk making sure that there is money enough to keep the actors paid and clothed and the audience intrigued enough to buy tickets. Henry Irving was one of the most famous, sought-after actors of the time. He was too busy at his craft to bother with these all-important tasks. Without the building, lights, costumes, advertising, and a script, Irving was nobody. He knew enough to hire an astute and admiring assistant. My own work history includes more than one stint as a business manager for a local ballet company followed by a stint as the personal manager of a popular ballet teacher. I performed exactly the tasks Stoker did for Irving: correspondence, advertising, travel arrangements, negotiations, purchases of everything from food to shoes to reading materials, and much more. All while continuing my freelance work as a dance writer.

The life of an actor (or dancer, musician, author) then and now depends on ticket sales. Tickets are bought because of notoriety. The public will pay for a ticket stub and the bragging rights to be able to say that they saw so-and-so live and in person on stage. Swell. But the pace and the stress are exhausting. It is a blood-sucking existence because fame is fleeting, and artists know it. When a person is at the top of their game, that’s when the fans want to see them. Scheduling and traveling are grueling because an artist never knows when the public will turn away to follow the next fad. The managers are just as used up as the artists.

Then what?

Exactly. Most of the time, there is no notice, no date when an actor’s fame fades. It is usually a gradual thing like the ebb and flow of low tide on the beach when most sun worshipers are inside having dinner. No one is on the sand to witness the slow rise and gentle recline of a weak little wave as it barely wets the sand on its way in then out for good. Until another bigger, grander, wider, more expansive wave comes in later. Does a surfer run for a ripple? No. The crowd swells for a big swell. It’s that way with performers and their managers.

What happens next is the time to realize how exhausted on every level you are, be it performer or support staff. It can be months before energy returns. It can be years before you feel like working at all. After the hustle and adrenaline rush of a performance career, the after party is more like a car running out of gas in the middle of the highway. There is no juiciness left. There is no life force left. You feel as if the blood that used to pump through your veins and kept you on the cutting edge has been literally sucked out of you and all you have left is a carcass not good for much of anything.

“Kiss today good-bye” is a true and famous line from the song “What I Did for Love” from the Broadway musical A Chorus Line. ACL is about the fleeting life of dancers in the chorus line. Although ACL was written in the 1970s, the feeling of nothingness when the career is over is what we humans believe to feel like being dead. The walking dead. The un-dead as Bram Stoker originally titled his novel eventually called Dracula.

A Dracula sucks the life out of another being so that Dracul can go on living. The theatre will suck the life out of the players so that it can go on existing. Did Stoker’s thankless day job as a business manager to a famous actor make him feel as if the fluid of life, his blood, had been drained from his body? We all do something for love at least once in a lifetime.

Be well, write well!

~Joy

(Image The Graphics Fairy.)

Monday 27 October 2025

#1 Dracula is a Romance?

One day my mentor in graduate school said to me, “Consider the book Dracula as a romance novel.” As a romance author myself, it hadn’t occurred to me to view this enduring work as a romance novel, but as one of my favorite all-time books, Bram Stoker’s Dracula rates high for me. The rating is based on the facts that I adore epistolary fiction and no matter how many times I read Dracula, I find something new or different to think about. Why couldn’t I see Dracula as a romance novel?

The left side of my brain immediately reminded me of the eight elements of the romance novel defined by educator and researcher Pamela Regis in her book A Natural History of the Romance Novel (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003.)

1. society defined
2. the meeting
3. the barrier
4. the attraction
5. the declaration
6. point of ritual death
7. the recognition
8. the betrothal

My mentor’s intriguing statement got me looking at Dracula in a different way. Right away, I ran into a brick wall. Who are the love interests in the story? The standard romance tropes require that two individuals develop an attraction followed by overcoming obstacles resolved by culminating in an agreement between the parties to make changes necessary to commit to a lasting relationship.

Now you may be thinking, “The obvious romantic couple is Miss Mina Murray and Jonathan Harker because they end of happily married and with a son they name after the man who gave his life to save them.” As a matter of fact, Stoker tries to tie up several relationships at the end of the book explaining that Godalming and Dr. Seward live and are also “both happily married.” And yes, the final remarks of that stalwart Van Helsing point to maybe Stoker wanted readers to see the story of Dracula as a romance with a happy ending:

“We want no proofs; we ask none to believe us! This boy will some day know what a brave and gallant woman his mother is. Already he knows her sweetness and loving care; later on he will understand how some men so loved her, that they did dare much for her sake.”

Doesn’t this sound like the end of a romance novel to you? It does to me, but I must admit that other elements of the story stand out so vividly for me that seeing a love story as the main idea hadn’t crossed my mind until those words from my mentor.

What do you think? Can you sink your teeth into the idea of the novel Dracula as a romance? Why or why not?

Be well, write well!

~Joy

(Image Graphics Fairy)

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