Tag: featured
A Writer’s Life: Turn Your Dream Novel into Reality
It’s a seamless transition, the process of a dream becoming reality, just as metamorphosis is to a butterfly. Somewhere, along the six-year journey of completing my first novel, I realized that I no longer dreamt of the idealistic notion of being a writer. I was one. Ten years ago, I had lost my mother to […]
A Writer’s Tale
29 years. 36 books. Hardcover, trade, mass market and audio. eBook. Manga. Large print. Published around the globe. Bestseller lists, international bestseller lists. And a soap opera—in Japan. When I look at all those accomplishments, the one that jumps out as truly my accomplishment is how long I’ve been writing and selling books. Happily, I […]
Writing – and Parenting – In the Dark
I didn’t start writing seriously until 2013. Not because I was trying to develop my craft, or because I wanted to collect more life experiences, but because that was the year my youngest turned four, and up until then I hadn’t strung together three consecutive hours of sleep since 2005. As a single mother of […]
How My Degree in Sociology Influences Me as an Author
I am often asked what inspires the books I write. Like many authors, my standard response is that inspiration can come from anywhere: a news story, a poem, a song, or a conversation I overhear on the street. But when I step back and consider this question from a broader perspective, I realize that what […]
The Huntingfield Paintress
Imagine it. You are a vicar’s wife living in a tiny Suffolk village in the 1850s. You are expected to serve tea to neighbours, to be modestly attired in a boned corset and full skirt and from time to time, to take a basket of provisions to a local family in distress. That’s about it. […]
After The Kids Are Gone, What’s Next?
When trying to decide what to write about next, I think about an issue or topic I’d like to explore and then figure out who is going to tell the story. My first book, The Good Life, examines the popular American belief that living a good life is dependent on material abundance, with a CEO’s […]
The Truth About My Memoir
I’ve written articles and blogs and given many talks—both before and after my book was published—about why I wrote my memoir. It’s not that the reasons I talked and wrote about aren’t true; it’s just that they weren’t fiercely true. Accessing my truth hasn’t always come easy. Let’s just say the truth played hide and […]
Bad Girls
She’s just too mean. That’s the comment I heard from an agent about the protagonist in the manuscript that I was pitching about nine years ago. That’s fine, I thought. Different strokes, right? Then I heard it again from a different agent that I had queried: “She’s so mean. It makes me not care about […]
Q&A with Literary Agent Patricia Nelson, Marsal Lyon Literary Agency
Patricia Nelson joined Marsal Lyon Literary Agency in 2014. She represents adult, young adult, and middle grade fiction, and is actively building her list. In general, Patricia looks for stories that hook her with a unique plot, fantastic writing and complex characters that jump off the page. On the adult side, she is seeking women’s […]
Finding Your Purpose As A Writer
The books of my youth erased me. Growing up, I read Nancy Drew mysteries long past my bedtime. I owned all the hardcover, yellow-spine books about the exploits of the young detective. I idolized my namesake driving her blue convertible through the idyllic town of River Heights with her red hair blowing in the breeze. […]
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