Tag: writing
How to Capitalize On An Unconventional (aka Crazy) Childhood
Long before American television was saturated with CSI and Forensic Files, I was living my own weekly CSI adventure with my family in northern Michigan. My father was a medical examiner for three counties and my mother assisted as his office manager. They ran the office out of our home because the county was underfunded. […]
Tackling the Daunting Second Novel
I began writing my second novel while I was querying my debut novel, The Hideaway. “They” tell you to do that to keep yourself from obsessing over the responses that come (or don’t come) from agents. Working on that second book gives you something else to focus on, plus it’s never a bad thing to […]
ADJUSTING TO YES by Julie Maloney
The journalist sitting across from me in the café was someone who had been following me for years. Several times, she had written about the non-profit organization I founded fifteen years ago called Women Reading Aloud. She had kept up with how things had progressed from welcoming writers gathered around the dining table in my […]
Are Writing Contests Worth It?
Writing contests are everywhere these days. A quick browse pulls up dozens of reference lists, blogs of encouragement and articles offering cautions. The rewards of contests range from cash to publication to feedback, and we all know that a few kind words from an impartial stranger can send the heart soaring. On the other hand, […]
How To Pitch A Series
A few weeks ago, I announced the Gamer Girl series, three books coming out from Kensington’s Lyrical Press starting in 2019. Since this is my second series, many people have asked me how to get an editor to buy multiple books rather than just one. Initially, if you do not know the editor and have […]
My Writing Space
It was cheaper than a divorce. This past summer I came face to face with a huge dilemma: My writing space had been invaded by an alien—the dreaded non-writer husband. As writers, we need our own space. It’s a right of passage. A given. An essential part of this crazy puzzle we call writing. You […]
A Book Is Born
Shortly after retiring, I decided that my children and grandchildren should know a bit more about my life, just in case they ever wondered how I came to make some of the choices that had affected it. I began by writing the love story I was still living with the man who had become my […]
Mary Quaile: Why Don’t We Know About Her?
I am from a working class Irish family in Manchester. My parents – like many who came over and settled here – brought with them an oral tradition, and when our extended family gathered together in our small living room, they told stories, sometimes sang and danced, and often argued!. When I started scribbling stories […]
Displacement And Writing
Displacement is a central theme of my novel ‘Le Chateau’. The heroine, Charlotte is an Australian, living as an expatriate in France. But Charlotte is no ordinary expat, she has suffered an accident and cannot remember the past five years of her life. The life she returns to post hospital is very different to her […]
Writing My Way to Self-Care
“This book grew out of a desperate plea to myself to figure out a way to take care of me, as I felt I was literally gasping for breath while being swallowed up in the sea of motherhood.” –The Self-Care Solution Most authors embark on their writing journey with a similar mission—to create something that […]
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