I am so excited to share this news on the website with you today! This has been in the works for months now and today finally enough of the pieces are in place that I can share details with you. Lit Loft 2013–a DIY MFA online event event–is officially a go. Watch the website because… Read more »
I’m a journalist by day and a creative writer by night. This double life started in my sophomore year of college, when I enrolled in two classes: Introduction to Fiction and News Writing. Every week, I would spend my mornings and afternoons typing up news articles using the inverted pyramid. Evenings were dedicated to creative writing:… Read more »
Most writers are readers. We grew up absorbed in books. I was one of those kids who grew up without a television, so I was reading a book a day on average. I still read a lot now, but unfortunately, I don’t absorb good writing technique automatically. I have to be deliberate about it. I… Read more »
Writers must be readers first. In fact, we could argue that reading just as important as writing. According to Stephen King, ‘If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write.” And we couldn’t agree more. To that end, we’ve put together a go-to list of DIY MFA articles about… Read more »
At ThrillerFest, as with all writing conferences, you go into each session with a set of expectations. Most of the day consists of listening to panels on certain topics, and then interviews. Over the course of the day, I heard discussions on everything from reading and editing to villains and violence, from debut authors and… Read more »
This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending ThrillerFest, a fantastic event from International Thriller Writers (ITW). Like last year, the theme that tied together my ThrillerFest experience can be summed in three words: “Expect the unexpected.” You might assume an event put on by thriller writers would have an icy vibe. You might… Read more »
When people meet me for the first time, they usually find out within the first ten minutes that I love to write. The question that proceeds right after is, “What do you write?” At that point, I’m stumped. The thing is, I write a little bit of everything – memoir, flash fiction, news articles and feature… Read more »
You didn’t hear back from the agent. Perhaps the editor rejected you. You may be asking, “What the heck?” Firstly, congratulations on putting yourself out there. Now, here’s something to take on: Look beyond the anger, the embarrassment or the frustration. What is there for you? Consider that a rejection or a lack of response is a… Read more »
The art of giving up on books is something I have practiced in short seasons for two years now. I never would have done it before, because books are sacred and I had convictions about finishing each one before I moved on. Practical reasons compelled me to betray those convictions. And I think you should… Read more »
Everyone’s experienced it. You have that novel bouncing around in your head, but you’re scared to start writing it. Thoughts pop up about not being good enough, about agents and editors laughing at your crazy idea, about all the time and energy spent on something that may get rejected. Your chest collapses. Your face cringes. Here’s the deal:… Read more »
