Ah, the excitement of beginning a new writing project. The energy! The enthusiasm! The high hopes! This, you think, is going to be the best novel yet, the best essay, the best short story, the best article. You whip open your computer, open a new file, place you hands on the keyboard and….sit staring at […]
If you’re anything like me, the beginning of writing a book is a messy affair. You’ve taken notes like crazy, and they might be anywhere and everywhere. You’ve got nuggets about character buried deep inside a Moleskine, and the best ideas ever for a plot–if only you could find them. I’m all for this chaos […]
On Wednesday, I gave a presentation at a local retirement center. I talked about how and where writers get ideas, and interspersed readings from Emma Jean's Bad Behavior. Afterwards, I got to sell books. It was a lot of fun! Anne, the organizer (an amazing dynamo of a woman) told me that the room could […]
Hi. Hope you had a great Christmas–I did. Okay, so we've got that done with, let's get to it: announcing the winners of the Christmas 2013 giveaway. Here we go: Dani wins the 25 page critique. Leigh wins the Moleskine journal. Mary wins a copy of my novel. Okay, but that's not all. I've […]
So it turns out that connection is way more crazy important than we might have thought. This probably doesn't come as a huge surprise to writers. After all, communication is inherent in connection, and we're all about communication. It's why we blog. It's why we write novels. It's why we read the writing of others. […]
Good Morning. How does that cup of coffee you've got clutched in your hand taste? Wouldn't it be even zestier if you had some scintillating reading material to accompany it? Yes? I have just the thing for you. I've got an interview up today over at Jessica Nottingham's blog, Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile, in which I […]
I was on the phone with one of my writing coaching clients (who just so happens to be a kick-ass SciFi adventure writer). "I'm enjoying your book," he said. I thanked him. "I think my wife is enjoying it even more. She keeps stealing it from me." I allowed as how this didn't surprise me, […]
Writing is magic. We think up an idea, and put it on the page. Whole worlds spring to life beneath our fingers. And all we need to do this, at base, is a pen and paper. Oh, sure, a typewriter or computer helps, but if worse came to worse you could do without one and […]
True confession: I haven't been writing. Okay, that's not exactly true. I've been writing blog posts, guest posts, interviews and comments on my client's work. I've been writing in my journal every morning. But I haven't been writing writing. I haven't been working on my WIP. Until this week. In my case, I had a […]
I owe you guys a blog post. I've been guest posting and interviewing all around the internet (thank you, everyone) and, indeed, I have one more interview coming up on Tuesday, one I'm very excited about. But in the hoopla around my book release I've not spent a lot of time, here, at home base, […]
