Crushed by the Crucible
So I did that thing, the very depressing one, where I pulled an old manuscript out of the files with the intention of fixing it. I was confident I knew the problem: it had to be the stakes. The reader…
YA Wednesday: What Teens Really Think, Feel, and Want You to Know
As someone whose teen years are miles away in the rear view mirror, I often find myself using that trite expression, “Back when I was a kid,” with my teenage children. Cue the eye rolling. No wonder. The time before…
Patron Saints for Writers
In case you missed it—and I did—January 24th was the feast day for Saint Francis de Sales, patron saint of writers and journalists. Our guy trudged around the snowy Swiss landscape trying to win back Catholics lost to Calvinism. He…
Friday Feast: Book Publicist’s Advice for Debut Novelists, An Interview with A. Ironi Barrett, Quitting Your Day Job, A Heated Auction for a YA Novel, and Twitter Tips from a Literary Agent
It’s time for the Friday Feast! This week, we have an assorted menu of literary links, from publicity and Twitter advice, to publishing news and an interview with an author whose young Nigerian protagonist awakes the morning before a job…
An Interview with Michelle Hoover, Author of Bottomland
Building on her critically acclaimed debut novel The Quickening, Michelle Hoover’s gripping, brilliantly crafted new release, Bottomland, follows the Hess family’s struggle to stay together on the Iowa plains following the mysterious disappearance of two family members during the years…
YA Wednesday: A Teen Story Writing Challenge, What is Wattpad, What NOT To Do When Writing YA Books, Why Teen Girls Roll Their Eyes, and Latte Butterbeer
Lately, every time I get going on my writing I kill the buzz by thinking about what I’m doing wrong. When I wrote my first novel I plowed ahead blindly, but now I have a serious case of knowing too…