Tag: featured
Planes, Trains, and Pitch Wars
Writing a novel is a bit like planning a trip to a far-flung destination. Now, bear with me–this isn’t an article on world-building or a pretty metaphor about how writing is a journey into the imagination. It’s like planning an actual trip. You do the work–you research hotels, read the guide books, make the reservations, […]
Shelley Day: Why I write
Oh, the irony, the irony, of being asked to write a piece on Why I Write, when I’m not actually writing at all, and haven’t done for months. I say ‘not writing,’ but I don’t actually mean Not Writing. Because I have been writing. I couldn’t not be writing. Only what I’ve been writing is […]
My Eight Book Deal
I can honestly say that I spent the first fifteen to twenty years of my writing life constructing stories that burned inside me but using characters I thought publishers and agents would like. Over the years the majority of rejections stated ‘we liked it but we just didn’t love it’. This comment caused me to […]
Why Fiction Matters
Imagine a world without stories. What a terrible place that would be! Stories hold up a mirror to the world; at its best, fiction has the power to be the “hammer with which to shape the universe.” If all the world is a stage, then fiction writers have many parts to play on it. They […]
Women: Missing Voices In Science Fiction
My name is Jo Zebedee and I write science fiction. That’s Jo, not Joe. And, yes, I get the odd comment about why I’d want to write something like that, and how on Earth I got into such a genre (thankfully, less as time goes on.) To answer. I got into this crazy genre without […]
A Story is a Gift
Writing fiction is an emotional investment and a labor of love. The process of storytelling forges bonds between readers and writers across borders and across time. Storytelling is a process, a relationship, and a journey. The book as product, though a recent phenomenon, is now widely accepted because authors write to sell books and publishers […]
Research Tastes Better with Chocolate
For a long time I wanted to write a book that focused on adoption, but it’s such a serious and emotional topic that I also wanted balance in my novel. I love creating characters with jobs I’ve never done before because it’s part of the adventure for me as a writer, so in my novel, […]
Stepmother: Reflections on Writing a Memoir
It happened one night. Totally unplanned. We were standing in the comfortably furnished living room, nuts on the table and chips next to the dip. The four couples stood casually, holding our drinks and chatting politely as you do when you meet people for the first time. The conversation was predictable. “Wasn’t it a beautiful […]
Representing Refugees
One of the things I’ve noticed on returning from any big trip is that most people aren’t that interested in hearing about what’s happened. They don’t want a half-hour diatribe on all the stuff I’ve done and seen nor even hear stories that moved me. There’s no time for all that. When I said I […]
Write Your Query FIRST for a Better Novel
Ah, the dreaded query letter. Writers bemoan, obsess about and labor over them—not realizing that this one-page document may be one of the greatest tools at their disposal. In fact, I’d argue that you shouldn’t wait until you’re finished drafting your novel to craft your query letter. Whether you’ve just started a new book or […]
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