I recently attended a virtual online writer’s conference. Overall I was geeking out the whole time, just starry-eyed and amazed. I had my high pony-tail of perky ‘I am here to learn’ twisted too tight, my serious glasses on, and a large notepad and sharpened pencil. Boom. Teach me more about poetry! Joy Harjo, my… Read more »
I’m a writer. Not an author, mind you. A writer. And I have the life of a writer. This distinction was never more apparent until October 2018, when I overheard some colleagues in the English department office of the high school where I teach, talking about an article one of them had published in a… Read more »
Over a decade ago, in one of my first college writing workshops, I commented that a story’s eclectic vocabulary jarred me out of its narrative. The author’s suave, privately-schooled best friend was in our class, and he volleyed my critique back: “It would’ve taken seconds to look up aquiline on your iPhone.” I had a… Read more »
Who wouldn’t want to write a bigger story? To grip readers across the spectrum and draw them into a wider universe, to ring all the bells. There are many paths to the writer’s holy grail. Bigger stories can be created or found. Ideally, both. Writing guru Donald Maass uses the metaphor of a canvas. Like… Read more »
Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Simon Stephenson. Originally from Edinburgh, Scotland, Simon Stephenson is a writer and screenwriter now living in LA (with stop-overs in London and San Francisco along the way). His first book was the memoir Let Not The Waves Of The Sea, about losing his brother Dominic in the Indian… Read more »
Welcome to Not Just Dudes in Tights, a column about our fave comics starring, well, not just dudes in tights. This week: Marvel’s The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl! I have always been interested in comics – I like superhero movies and always secretly wanted to go to ComicCon. But I was too nervous to walk into… Read more »
Whether you’re an author, a publishing pro, or just someone who hangs out on Twitter, you’ve probably heard — and likely internalized — certain stereotypes and misconceptions about the publishing industry. Some are easily disproved blanket statements, like “you can only succeed as a traditionally published author” and “no one actually reads self-published books.” Others… Read more »
Writing a novel is a marathon, not a sprint. They’re both ambitious undertakings that require consistent, focused effort over a longer period of time. They both require a special kind of dedication and optimism. And neither once comes without its setbacks. But that’s why we take on these challenges: to prove ourselves. To accomplish something…. Read more »
The notion that we had an undiscovered perspective filled us with indescribable joy. For so long we’d lived with only three. Admittedly, our beloved 2nd Person had been chased away by middle school teachers and college composition courses, but we consoled ourselves with 1st and 3rd, made the most of them, and enjoyed our perspective… Read more »
Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Jeremy Hance. Jeremy is writer and freelance environmental journalist, who also happens to cohabitate with mental illnesses. He has named his OCD Steve and his depression goes by the name of Malachi. He is the author of the memoir Baggage: Confessions of a Globetrotting Hypochondriac. As a journalist,… Read more »
