October is a scary month. Not only do we have Halloween, but we’re also all realizing that the end of the year is coming up fast, and that’s frightening in itself. But as writers, we have a whole other set of fears. From battling imposter syndrome to self-publishing, there are a lot of difficult aspects… Read more »
I love a good mystery! And I especially love a good historical mystery. Who killed the Princes in the Tower? (Hint: It was not Richard III.) Did Princess Anastasia survive the murder of her family? Was Elizabeth I really a virgin Queen, or did she allow herself to be seduced by the dashing Robert Dudley?… Read more »
Nothing excites me more than a new writing project. It’s one of the reasons why I’m in this wonderful profession of stringing beautiful words together to form an idea or a tale. It always starts with my heart jumping, adrenaline pumping, soul soaring high and then just like that, I have amazing prose and a… Read more »
Agonizing dread arrests most writers at the prospect of revisiting their old work – especially an essay collection. Our revision reflex activities and work that was due but (at least in your mind) not necessarily done is suddenly in need of a fresh coat of paint. We obsess over what we could have said, done,… Read more »
The only thing better than a plump novel about food is throwing in recipes for readers to go with it. Not only does it give readers a chance to be a part of the story, but it opens up space for you to flex your creativity in a new way. You love to read other… Read more »
Too many novels go unfinished. Writers give up in frustration because they run out of ideas, they get stuck, or they become overwhelmed by self-doubt. This often happens because writers have unrealistic expectations about the novel-writing process. Through my own struggles with writing a novel, as well as my work with other writers, I’ve seen… Read more »
Immigration is an emotional topic that can turn the friendliest of conversations into a fierce debate. People have wide-ranging views that have been shaped by their own experiences, the opinions of friends, and the news programs they watch. Writing about the immigrant experience requires a lot of nuance and attention to detail. Seven years ago,… Read more »
As an author of three published novels and over thirty short stories, several of them award-winners, I have acquired a sense of how to approach a writing project and finish it. I taught myself about writing fiction by learning from mistakes and the way I erred in my early years as a writer. I’m still… Read more »
Growing up, I was a shy kid who switched schools every year. Books became a safe haven for me. A place I could escape, where who I was and what I wanted most could be lived out through hopping into the lives of characters. It was a place where people like me could form friendships… Read more »
I love mysteries with animals as sleuths, so I was delighted to speak to debut author Codi Schneider about her book Cold Snap. It’s the first in a series about a cat named Bijou and her human Spencer Bonanno, who runs the Fox Burrow Pet Inn in their little town of Gray Birch in the… Read more »
