Why Not to Work on Your Novel
I assume if you are reading this blog, you either have been or currently are in the middle of the long slog that is writing a novel. I am. I’m in year three, and still I don’t see an end….
Category: The Writing Life
Meeting Susan Donovan: The Bestselling Author With My Name
I’ve been struggling with this blog post over the last couple of weeks, trying to shape an idea into something constructive. What I wanted to do was write about acknowledgements pages, how writers use them in different ways, everything from…
Friday Feast: In Praise of Rejection, Writers Who Give Up, Things Writers Know, Perfect Practice, and Six Debut Novelists Look Back
Fall is the time of year when I most feel the pressure to get the words on the page and revise the stories that I allowed to languish all summer (or since last year). Maybe it’s because October is a…
Friday Feast: Authors in the Red, Tips for Selling, Nine Editor Schedules, and a Handy Form for Asking Other Writers for Favors
Apologies to the handful of folks who received the half-written Friday Feast yesterday (a Thursday). The Super Blood Moon, jet lag, deep fried corndogs*, and funnel cakes affected my ability to read the calendar and complete sentences. But they did…
Life and Death and the Novel
Writing a novel, especially a first novel, can be a long, hard process. A few years ago, I began working on a novel that focuses on a mother-in-law and a daughter-in-law and examines the complexities of in-law relationships as well…
Friday Feast: After the Debut, Sad Sales Figures, the State of Publishing, Giving Up, and Marketing in the Era of Social Media
This is gonna be quick and dirty this week ’cause I’m heading to the homeland for dominoes with my daddy, biscuits and sausage gravy, some John 3:16 Pizza (I don’t know the real name, but it’s a great pizza joint…