How To Write When Your Father Is Dying
You will sit down to write on a Sunday morning. Your final manuscript is due to your Incubator class in 22 days. The phone will ring. Your heart will sink at the Maine area code. It will be your father’s…
Category: Novels
How I Changed All My Writing Habits
It is a truth universally acknowledged that one when becomes a writer paid (minimally, but paid!) for writing, one chucks all of one’s precious notions about craft and art and motivation out the window that has needed replacing for three…
Six Months until Publication: Tentative Tips from a Debut Novelist
I just passed my six months to publication date for my debut novel, Gina in the Floating World (She Writes Press). I sent in my last review of my galleys, and my baby is about to be sent to the printer for my ARCs (Advanced Review Copies), the ones sent out to reviewers. It’s really happening. I’d love to be able to sit back and enjoy the ride until my book launch on October 2, but that’s not the way it works in this do-it-yourself day and age.
How I Survived My First Week on Submission – Despite my Family’s Attempts to Support Me
Any writer who has had a book on submission knows the stomach-twisting anxiety. Why hasn’t anyone called? Where is my six-figure deal and my auction? Ha! More likely, you will be greeted with crickets. Weeks, maybe months, of crickets. I’m…
How to Work With Beta Readers and Stay Sane
“Your use of the word ‘bloke’ is a mess,” Lincoln wrote to me over Facebook chat. I met Lincoln when I was on campus at Macquarie University, just outside of Sydney. I did my junior year abroad there seemingly a…
Doctor’s Orders
After a head injury, a lifelong word-lover – a voracious reader and dedicated writer – is forbidden by her doctor to read or write. She’s instructed to instead fill her time with “mindless activity such as television, which requires no…