Tag: featured
“This Is How It Goes.”
Allow me to set the scene – You recently completed writing the most difficult story of your career. You pulled it off! Your exhaustive research came through. The ending poured out of you like liquid diamonds. You redid the ending of your last novel a dozen times. This time, it felt like the story was […]
The Inner Critter: Awareness First, The Writing Will Follow
I recently had a woman come on my Haven Writing Retreat and say, “I learned more in five days of Haven than in my entire MFA program…and I’m still paying it off six years later!” I hear this sort of overture all too often, and it concerns me. I also hear, “I’m still chiseling my […]
Write for Victory!
Apologies in advance for starting this post with a negative thought, but it has to be said: there is a lot of disappointment in the business of writing. It is an inescapable part of the job which can make it difficult (to say the least) to keep moving forward, to keep trying, to keep writing. […]
Survival Guide to Writing an (e)Book Series
There have been many interesting things I’ve discovered about being a published author over the past twelve months, and many challenges that I wasn’t expecting, including the amount of time edits take, the need for exhaustive promo and the sheer amount of hours required at the laptop. Last summer I was presented with one of […]
The Literary Salon And How To Have One
A literary salon is all about exploring the riches of one’s heart. Contrary to what I have believed, it seems that Les Grandes Dames des Salons Parisiens were not the first to start that noble tradition during the sixieme et septieme siecles. Others got there first. The poet and scholar, Al-Khanas, recited her poetry en […]
In Defense of Fluff
“Anyway, it’s not a bad book. I just felt like it was more fluff than anything else.” That is a direct quote from a Goodreads review for one of my books and it doesn’t bother me at all. Yes, you read that correctly — it does not bother me at all that someone thinks a […]
Writing in Community: You Don’t Have To Do It Alone
Laura Munson is the author of the New York Times and international bestselling memoir “This Is Not The Story You Think It Is: A Season of Unlikely Happiness” She tells us why writing in community can bring out people’s voice. “I write in a solitude born out of community”—Terry Tempest Williams I am home from […]
Can a Self-Published Author Have an Agent?
Can a self-published/independent author have an agent? Surely, it’s a contradictory state? Well, no, not in today’s publishing world. Last May, I signed with A for Authors literary agency to represent me for subsidiary and foreign rights. As the congratulations flowed in, I was a little overwhelmed by the lovely things people said on Facebook […]
Don’t Say I Didn’t Warn You
Okay, ladies: It’s almost springtime. You’ve spent the winter tightening up that manuscript, writing the (gulp!) first 30 drafts of your query letter, and you’re ready to hit “send.” It’s Agent Time. And you, fellow writer, are on your way to getting published. No, no, wait. Not yet. DO NOT SEND THAT LETTER. Read this […]
Dumped: Stories of Women Unfriending Women
An anthology? How hard could that be? Great idea. Get other writers. Everyone already loves the title. “It’s just way more work than you can imagine. Even if you imagine a lot of work, it’s more.” Eleanor Henderson and Anna Solomon It was at least five years ago when the percolating began. You know what […]
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