My Novel Incubator instructors loved to tell us to kill our characters. Most of us came into class with drafts bloated with characters who served no purpose, so it was sound advice. During revision, I created a giant diagram of all…
After the horrific events of this past week, the blogosphere is buzzing with posts about race in America and the Black Lives Matter movement. When I was a kid, there weren’t a lot of books tackling issues of race, identity,…
We are disheartened at the continued violence and tragic loss of lives around the globe. As readers, we travel to these worlds — both near and far, familiar or foreign. We cannot help but feel a sense of community with and compassion…
We kick off this week’s links with a fantastic discussion between two debut authors. I always love it when writers interview other writers because of the “me too!” moments that occur, such as the struggle to find the right POV…
How do you write an amazing query letter? With pizza, alcohol, and friends, of course! At least that was our hope at last night’s “Query-a-Thon,” where a group of Novel Incubator alumni and current students convened to tackle that first hurdle on…
Heidi Durrow grew up as the middle child of an African-American enlisted Air Force man and a white Danish woman. Raised in North Carolina, Turkey, Washington state, and Germany, she spent summers and holidays in her mother’s Danish hometown. A…