Writing a Food Novel? Avoid This Mistake

Writing a Food Novel? Avoid This Mistake

No one sets out to make mistakes with their writing, especially a food novel. Writers are driven by a passion to share universal experiences, and sometimes, that’s exactly what gets them off-track.  It happens to the best of us.  Some professional nonfiction food writers have dipped their toes in the world of fiction to only… Read more »

Tales of a Solopreneur

Tales of a Solopreneur

As I write this post in early 2022, I’ve closed out my 2021 Virtual Writers Sabbatical (“VWS”) and started fresh. I mentioned in my Discovering the Art of Book Coaching post in December that my 2022 VWS would include focusing on completing a book coach certification program and starting a book coaching business. I’m at… Read more »

February 2022 Leisure Learning

February 2022 Leisure Learning

Hello, word nerds and other lovers of language! Hopefully, by now, you are fully into your new writing schedule or project that will carry you through 2022. If not, if you are perhaps still trying some ideas out, just tell everyone you’re going through your experimental period and have a blast! After all, authentic emotion… Read more »

#5onFri: Five Things to Remove from Your TBR List

#5onFri: Five Things to Remove from Your TBR List

I love reading. It is my main hobby. I am always on the lookout for new authors and books to enjoy. But, I also get recommendations from friends, magazines and the Internet that I ignore. Because of my ever-growing TBR list, I have more books to read than I could ever get to. Lately, I’ve… Read more »

Draft Day, or Learning to Celebrate Your Manuscript

Draft Day, or Learning to Celebrate Your Manuscript

Last summer, on a hectic day before a month-long vacation, I went to the print shop for my final errand. I’d spent the past ten months working on the second draft of my latest novel—submitting chapters to my writing group, fixing the clunky narrative arc, and generally solidifying my sketchy first pass. Now the dogged… Read more »

Writer to Writer: William di Canzio and E.M. Forster

Writer to Writer: William di Canzio and E.M. Forster

When I was in college, I had the privilege of taking a course titled “Writing Back to Empire.” It was a study of postcolonial literature taught by the brilliant Professor Kathleen Renk, but the course title alone did more to describe that school of theory & criticism for our young minds than any other definition… Read more »

What MFAs Miss about the Editing Process

What MFAs Miss about the Editing Process

Browsing Twitter last week, I saw a tweet from a colleague of mine that read, “I’m curious, for writers who have published books, what was the editing process like? Especially curious about your first book. From whom and at what stage did you receive edits? To what degree? Does this question even make sense? Why… Read more »

The Book Nook: Maus by Art Spiegelman

The Book Nook: Maus by Art Spiegelman

If you read my last post, you’re probably wondering why I’m talking about Maus today. The answer is simple. Shortly after I shared my last post, in which I listed twelve books that I’ve owned for a long time and vowed to read in 2022, a school board in Tennessee banned Maus, the graphic novel… Read more »