Tag: featured
How Outside Influences Affect My Writing
Okay, this post is gonna make some people feel queasy. It’s gonna make you angry. It’s gonna make you doubt my sanity. Writers and would-be writers, for instance – the write-what-you-know, follow-your-passion, what-does-your-gut-tell-you people out there, especially the unpublished ones, I’m going to make you absolutely nuts right now, and I apologize. Readers? Publishing pros? […]
From Screenwriter to Novelist
I first wanted to become a novelist because I wanted to find out how it was done. I remember as a teenager being gobsmacked when I read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s last novel, Tender Is The Night, in an edition that explained how two different versions had been published, the second re-arranging the chronology of the […]
Writing The Book That Accompanies a Television Show, or What It’s Like to Be the Toy in the Happy Meal
There are two questions I can count on being asked after someone sees my writing resume: “Did you get to interview Matt Damon?” and “What’s it like to write a book that’s tied to a television show?” The answer to the first question is simple–no. (Though if you catch me on a good day, I […]
Q&A with Literary Agent Carly Watters of the P.S. Literary Agency
Carly Watters began her publishing career in London at the Darley Anderson Literary, TV and Film Agency. She has a BA in English Literature from Queen’s University and a MA in Publishing Studies from City University London. Since joining PSLA in 2010, Carly has had great success launching new authors domestically and abroad. Never without […]
Confessions of a Book Buzz Builder
When I first signed with my agent to represent my memoir, she reviewed my book proposal. I’d included this tidbit: “as a former book publicist of ten years at several major publishing houses, including Random House, Simon & Schuster and Doubleday, I have the skills to promote my book extensively.” She scribbled in the margin, […]
Born in China, Writing in English
When I told my friends in China that I wrote two novels about Empress Wu, their favorite empress, the first thing they asked was, “Is it in Chinese?” It’s a legitimate question, I understand, since I was born and grew up in China. I went to school in China, too, and learned the basics of […]
Lies and Other Acts of Love: An Interview with Kristy Woodson Harvey
Kristy Woodson Harvey’s, Lies and Other Acts of Love , calls on one of the oldest questions: what would you do for love? What would you do to find love? Or keep love? Or to protect those you love? The three generations of White family women each find their own answers while testing the bonds […]
Reality Bits: Fact in Family Fiction
One week after my debut novel was published, one of my father’s cousins called me. I hadn’t spoken to her for almost a decade, but she had seen my book in the new fiction section of her local bookstore. We talked for a while, and she asked whether the story was about some of our […]
From Journalist to Novelist
I’m often asked how my real-life experience as a journalist influenced my career as a writer. Though I didn’t know it at the time, my work as a reporter and anchor became incredibly valuable as I began writing novels. After being in TV news for six years, I learned to work quickly and efficiently. After […]
The 12 Steps to Self-Publishing
My mother used to say, “Good thing you got your father’s math skills and my English skills, and not the other way around.” My mother was an art major and my father owned a small business. Mom and I would make up stories together with fascinating characters and my dad taught me the old-school way […]
Recent Comments