Category: How To and Tips
A Different Kind Of Wonder Woman
It was an odd stocking stuffer—a five-inch Wonder Woman, with Gumby-esque limbs malleable enough to achieve super-human, joint-defying positions. I tossed my husband a baffled look. No fan of the superhero, superpower stuff, I’ve always found my power in the ordinary, the everyday, the quiet people and deeds. “But you have been a Wonder Woman, […]
Writing Rituals – Do I Have Any?
I recently read Daily Rituals, by Mason Currey. It’s a fascinating account of the creative processes of a collection of famous artists, authors, composers and choreographers. Who knew that Anthony Trollope, rose before dawn every day and wrote three thousand words before going to his job at the post office, or that Thomas Wolfe wrote standing […]
Why I Wrote You Are Not Alone: A Heartfelt Guide to Grief, Healing, and Hope
No one is born knowing how to cope with the wave of grief that follows the death of someone we love. As a psychotherapist who’s worked with many grievers, I know when faced with overwhelming grief, many people feel like they are alone in what they’re experiencing and can feel like they’re going crazy. Helen […]
The Acknowledgement Dilemma
As a new writer you spend all of your time and energy getting the story and words of your novel to be the best that they can be. Then comes the hit and miss task of getting your work in front of agents and publishers. When you finally get that break and sign a contract […]
After Your Death, the Royalties Keep Coming, But Where Do They Go?
In the United States, death is a legal process. If you die with a will, a court metes out your assets according to your wishes. If you die intestate, your property is divvied up according to a legal formula put into play by your state’s legislature, typically handing over your assets to your spouse and […]
Did You Write The Same Novel Twice?
It’s been said that writers have one story to tell. I don’t know that I agree, but I do know there may be underlying, compelling themes that crop up in story after story, and even characters seem to demand more life. They live in our heads, after all. They have more to tell us. Just […]
The Gift of Writing Regularly
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the process of writing. Thinking is great. Doing is better. To encourage you to keep writing, I’d like to share a few excerpts from an interview Carol Smallwood did with me about my new book, Never Too Late: From Wannabe to Wife at 62. The title says it all, […]
Exploring All Forms of Writing
I was offered my first professional writing contract in the 1980s – a two novel deal writing ‘bonkbusters’ for a major publishing house. It was in the days when vanity publishing was frowned upon and only traditional publishing gave an author credibility. This was long before Amazon invented Kindle. I thought I was made for […]
Historical Fiction Is A Piece Of Cake
Historical fiction sounds relatively easy, right? You take an event from history, do a little research to get the appropriate costumes and setting, then add dialogue. Voila! You’ve got historical fiction. Not so fast. I recently wrote a book of historical fiction and I can say honestly that not a single step was easy. My […]
My Twisty Turny Road to Publication – Susan Crawford
I have always written. When I was a child, I had diaries jam-packed with angst and secrets, and, later, notebooks filled with fairly random thoughts, short-story parts, poetry. Writing was my escape as was reading. It was my therapy, my emotional purging, my joy. When my family exasperated me, an unhappily common occurrence, I would […]
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