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Category Archives: on Writing


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NaNoWriMo Kick-Off @ Havoc Brewing Company

Calling All Chatham County/Chapel Hill/Apex Wrimos: Nov. 1 Kick-Off!

Wreak some Havoc with us at Havoc Brewing’s Coffee Bar! All Wrimos welcome at this Day One Write-In, and in fact, the more the merrier. Havoc has a new coffee bar that’s super tasty, and they’ve got great space to sit and write. They don’t serve food, so bring whatever snacks you may need to fuel your creativity, and plan to buy something from the coffee bar if you can (support local, y’all!). If you’re sticking around after the write-in, you can extend your sprint by grabbing a pint and lunch from the daily food truck.  

Find me on NaNo as Becky Moore, where I’m working on my next romantic adventure!

Havoc Brewing Company, 39 West St.Pittsboro, NC 27312 | Get Directions | HavocBrewing.com


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Boosting the Signal: Talk of the Triangle

It should come as no surprise that I’m the Talk of the Triangle. I mean, if we’re being truthful, it’s the celebrated humorist essay and interview I wrote for Midtown Magazine that’s the actual Talk, but share the credit where you can, right? Check out the interview when you’ve got a chance!

Samantha Chase and I talked with Adam Cave and Melissa Wistehuff, along with producer Joe Woolworth at Podcast Cary, about life in the world of romance. Since both me and Samantha have inspiration-worthy husbands, who are often stopped by friends and family to ask if they’re the heroes of our stories, we were the lucky podcast interviewees. Check out the whole shebang today!


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Boosting the Signal: Midtown Magazine’s Love Stories

I’m excited to share my first humorist essay and interview with Midtown Magazine that’s close to my heart: Love Stories – Go on a summer reading adventure with local romance authors. It’s also running in their sister publication, 5 West. I had the pleasure and distinct honor to talk local romance with literary powerhouses Sabrina Jeffries, Reese Ryan, Sawyer Bennett, Samantha Chase, Kianna Alexander, and Kerry Adrienne. Dabny Grinnan of All About Romance also chimed in. And, of course, Becky Moore. Plus, icing on the cake, Peyton Sickles was the photographer! After you read the article, take a moment to buy the latest releases and support this robust community of writers. It’s good for your heart!


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Examining “Otherness” now live

I was super excited to interview Michele Tracy Berger for the North Carolina Literary Review’s fall 2022 issue on Writers Who Teach, Teachers Who Write. She’s an interesting, forward-thinking Afrofuturist who writes about the Black Fantastic, and shares in my love for genre fiction and great storytelling. Check out the article when you’ve got a chance — I won the Randall Kenan Prize for this essay, which was unexpected and delightful.

Read the essay here: Examining Otherness on the Page and in the Classroom with Michele Tracy Berger

Michele’s going to be a guest author at my book club this month. My peeps are excited to read Reenu-Yu and talk to the author. Be sure to grab a copy of her book if you’re looking for something spooky. Don’t forget to leave a great review over at Goodreads.


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Introduction to Grantwriting is Back!

Happy Hump Day, y’all! I’m excited to bring my one-day Continuing Education workshop, Introduction to Grantwriting, back to Central Carolina Community College. It’s been a long, three-year COVID break, and I’m psyched to get back to the basics. Does your non-profit organization need funding? Do you work in the public school, healthcare, or arts industries? Bet you can get this approved as an off-site workday that’ll be more productive and fun than looking at your office walls all day. 🙂 Sign up today! And spread the word if you’ve got time.

A laptop sits on a white office table with office supplies, a cup of coffee, and a plant.


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Randall Kenan Prize

I’m excited to announce I’ve been awarded the Randall Kenan Prize for my interview essay “Examining ‘Otherness’ on the Page and in the Classroom with Michele Tracy Berger,” in the 2022 North Carolina Literary Review.

Dolly R. Sickles is the winner of the 2022 Randall Kenan Prize for her interview essay “Examining ‘Otherness’ on the Page and in the Classroom with Michele Tracy Berger.” The Randall Kenan Prize is sponsored by the UNC Chapel Hill Creative Writing Program for the year’s best essay on or interview with a new or relatively new North Carolina writer, accepted for publication in NCLR. Glenis Redmond, poet-in-residence at the Peace Center for Performing Arts in Greenville, SC, and former mentor poet for the National Student Poet’s Program, selected Sickles’s essay on Berger, saying “In her writing, Berger does the heavy lifting––providing space for others, as well as reflecting, as an intentional mirror for others to imagine themselves in both the present and the future. The author of this essay was eager to find out whether Michele Tracy Berger is more a writer who teaches or a teacher who writes. With countless published stories and a novel coming out this year, we find there is no definitive line between the two. Berger is ever-present in both fields.” Sickles’s interview essay will appear in NCLR Online Fall 2022. 

A freelance writer and teacher, Sickles is the author of children’s books and romance novels. Her subject for the Kenan Prize essay, Michele Tracy Berger, is a Professor in the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies at UNC Chapel Hill, who publishes both scholarship and fiction. Berger’s 2017 novella, Reenu-You, is an example of the speculative fiction by African American writers that she talked about with Sickles.

http://www.nclr.ecu.edu/news/2022-3-NCLR-Honors.htm


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Fun stuff in the news

I’m super excited about my forthcoming political romantic suspense, Mine By Design, releasing on February 3. Our local newspaper ran a great piece: Chatham author’s new novel takes on a corrupt politician.

Pre-orders are up now for IndieBound, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble, for both paperback and digital editions. I hope you’ll get a copy, and leave a [great, 5-star] review. 🙂 And if you’ve got a local bookstore, ask them to carry it. It’s good for your karma.


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Sharing the spotlight with my favorite son

I have the great honor of sharing the spotlight with my favorite (and only) son Peyton today as we’re highlighted through the Chatham Arts Council’s Meet the Artist series. I thought Rachel Flanagan did a great job; the whole process was enjoyable. The arts have been hit hard during this coronavirus quarantining, so shout out to all arts patrons who have helped keep the lights on with arts orgs, and who’ve helped artists pay the bills. I’ve been around the block, but my young, emerging artist is just starting out and his steady work during this period has a hopeful vibe for this proud mother, artist, and arts patron. Seek out local artists and arts organizations and see how you might help support them — not all support has to be financial, either. Boost the signal of their work, send kind words of support, share their contact information with potential patrons and clients. The arts are incredibly important, and through organizations like the Chatham Arts Council, and Hobbs Architects in downtown Pittsboro (who sponsor the Meet the Artist series), there continues to be an audience.

I’m always happy for folks to check out my kid lit stuff and my romance stuff, but I really hope you’ll check out the links for Peyton. He’s an amazing photographer, and a true emerging artist. And if you happen to need portraits, event coverage, a photojournalist, or film development, hit him up.

Peyton Sickles


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NaNo – practice plotting

Here are the links to the plotting post I added to our Chapel Hill/PBI Wrimos Discord group earlier. You can plot with:

And here are some other great plotting resources:


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Prepping for NaNoWriMo

Are you participating in NaNo this year? I am. I’m preparing for a training session during lunch where I’ll learn how to liaise through Discord. Should be interesting. Now’s the time to start brainstorming your project if you’re going to join in. There’s no winner or loser, no competition–just a challenge to yourself to start that novel you’ve been dreaming about. Or maybe finish that novel that’s been pushed to the back burner. Or try something new. I’ll be posting more regularly throughout November, but until then you can find me as BeckyMoore.

  • 2010: the year I joined
  • 272,287: the number of words I’ve written since I joined
  • 6: the number of years I wrote and actively created content
  • 5: the number of years I reached the 50,000 word goal
  • 4: the number of years overlapped by my TBI recovery
  • 2: the number of books that have been published from NaNo efforts
  • 2: the number of years I’ve been a Municipal Liaison