Tag: featured
Why I No Longer Read My Book Reviews
Reviews cause writers angst. We need them, we fear them, and, in my opinion, too often, we take the time to read them. I LIKED MY LIFE came out with two starred reviews from Library Journal and Booklist, and kind words from Kirkus, but Publisher’s Weekly was decidedly unimpressed. That same pattern followed me on Goodreads and Amazon. Over a four […]
Q&A with Lydia Kang
Lydia Kang is an author of adult and young adult fiction, poetry, and narrative non-fiction. She graduated from Columbia University and New York University School of Medicine, completing her residency and chief residency at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. She is a practicing physician who has gained a reputation for helping fellow writers achieve […]
The Arduous Search for An Agent
First thing to remember, it doesn’t start with sending out query letters. It starts before that. You finally finish your manuscript, then you re-write it, and you edit it, and you craft it probably more than once. But even before that, if you’re writing a novel or memoir as I have, you have also spent […]
In Defense of Unlikeable Characters- Five Tips to Keep Readers Engaged
It’s a well-known writing tip- your main character should be likeable. Readers enjoy being able to identify with a character, to cheer her on toward her goal. This can be hard to do when they’re unlikable. It’s good advice. However, I keep doing the opposite- I write complicated, messy, often seriously flawed characters. Books like […]
Are Two Heads Better Than One?
Writing is a solitary and very personal process. Alone at our writing desks, we struggle with word count and plot, accompanied only by our self-doubt and bull-headed determination. No wonder the prospect of sharing some of that isolation with another writer is so appealing, and yet collaboration is a relatively rare, and slightly mythical form. […]
Busting the Myth! You’re Never Alone in the Writing Community
This is a little embarrassing. But it also is a reminder to me of how quickly time flies by. In 2011 … I know! … that’s just ridiculous … and I apologize … I wrote this post about women’s friendship for Women Writers, Women’s Books. At the time I had recently published my first novel, […]
Walking my Way to Writing
I have scribbled and strode my way through more than half a century of life, from the various neglects and insults of my childhood, through the frustrations and intimacies of relationships, marriages, and separations, to the frantic helplessness of health setbacks, the hard-won lessons gifted to me by my dogs, the slack-jawed joys of watching […]
Sex In Women’s Fiction, Part One: Writing Sex
Part one of a three part series about Sex In Women’s Fiction I write stories about women – stories that chronicle the wonderful, harrowing, funny, mess, fabulous, and occasionally sordid details of their lives. And, inevitably, there comes a time in every manuscript when my main character decides that she’s going to have sex. Before […]
What My Readers Mean To Me
My readers are gold! I can’t stress enough how I’m genuinely honoured that my readers have spent their hard-earned cash and their precious time with my novels. I would so dearly love to meet them and thank them individually, whether they were wowed or wish to convey more critical feedback. I like to think my […]
How Writing Stories Made Me A Better Corporate Leader
HOW WRITING STORIES MADE ME A BETTER CORPORATE LEADER When business influencers talk about the top five qualities of a good leader, emotional intelligence (EQ) will be on almost everyone’s list. I think EQ is important, don’t get me wrong, but storytelling is a vital skill that hardly anyone mentions. The one thing I learned […]
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