Category: How To and Tips
Five Lessons on Writing and Motherhood
When people see me with three young children, they assume I’m a full-time housewife. On the other hand, writer friends are often surprised when I tell them I have three kids. On March 6th, 2018, my debut novel, RAINBIRDS, came out. I first wrote it for NaNoWriMo in 2013. At that time, I already had […]
On Genre Hopping
In a recent fellowship application, I described myself as a “multidisciplinary” writer. (I feel like could devise a better term, but until then, this one is as good as any.) Here’s a rough synopsis of what I do: I’ve been writing plays for fifteen years now, currently I have a musical in the works; I […]
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A PLOT OR CHARACTER HITS TOO CLOSE TO HOME?
My father and I have had a tenuous relationship at times so when my first novel captured the painful feelings of my protagonist losing her father at the age of four, my own father immediately went on a tirade: “You killed me off on page 3?” And when my ex-boyfriend from high school’s mother cornered […]
Hold the Lecture and Keep Book Pages Turning
There are few things worse than being lectured by a novelist when you want to be entertained. That’s not to say entertaining fiction can only be happy and inconsequential. Both of my historical novels address weighty events in U.S. history – slavery and environmental ruin, discrimination and economic disaster. When weaving a tale with subject […]
Music, Writing, And Novel Soundtracks
The most frequent question that people ask me when I tell them I’m a writer is, ‘Where do you get your inspiration from?’ It’s a valid query, given that writing a novel requires discipline and imagination. To be honest, inspiration can come from anywhere and at any time, and, being a writer, nothing is wasted. […]
What I’ve Learned Since Getting a Publishing Contract
There are many things I didn’t know before I had a publishing contract. Like publicity is largely self-generated, that social media would rise as it has, I didn’t anticipate how the second book would be so much easier and enjoyable and… I didn’t know they would be so little time to write. I imagined a publishing contract […]
The Great Eight – Writing Tips
As Somerset Maugham said, ‘There are three rules for the writing of a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.’ While we’re waiting for someone to discover those golden rules, here are eight tips I’ve learned while sweating over my writing for the past ten years. 1. READ – Keep a note of the […]
How Mindfulness Can Help You Enjoy Your Book Release Day
It’s 5 am on Saturday, April 7. My head is ready to explode. I am supposed to speak at a wellness conference in Pennsylvania in a few hours and on Tuesday, April 10, my debut U.S. novel, “Louisiana Catch,” comes out. That very evening, I am doing an intimate wine and reading celebration with a fellow author at Bluestockings bookstore […]
Location! Location! Location!
This may sound like an intro for a real estate ad, but not this time. Rather it’s an intro to considering the importance of location in stories. The sense of ‘place’ is often vital to the heart of a novel and, speaking from a personal perspective, it’s absolutely essential to the stories I want to […]
Beyond Revision—Weirding Up Your Writing
What do you do when you’ve written and rewritten a piece, and it still falls flat? Some approaches to re-vision an essay that is refusing to cooperate. I wrote six beautiful, heart-breaking pages and electronically submitted them to my advisor. It was a great story. Her reply was something along the lines of, “That last […]
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