While blogging is a prominent web genre, it’s not one that’s known for its standardization. Or so beginning writers seem to think. That’s primarily because writing in different situations takes on its own unique forms and conventions. While there are lots of people selling products and services on their blogs, not all bloggers have this… Read more »
2017 has been an insanely difficult year. From political strife to domestic terrorism, hurricanes and refugees to cyber warfare and nuclear tension, we are exposed to human suffering and fear on a daily, sometimes even hourly, basis. For sanity’s sake, we can limit our social media and news access, but no one can completely turn… Read more »
If you’re a writer, chances are that you have at least some intuitive understanding of how English works, even if you don’t know what the difference is between the nominative and accusative cases or how to properly use the subjunctive tense. The good news is that the more obscure English rules don’t rear their ugly… Read more »
Today I have the pleasure of hosting author and illustrator Trinka Hakes Noble on the show! Trinka is the award-winning author of over thirty picture books, and has been hailed as the champion of the picture book genre. Her latest book, Rettie and the Ragamuffin Parade, is a historical fiction starring a young girl named… Read more »
The most important thing you can do as a writer is to write, and I always try to create more time behind the keyboard. As I cull through my commitments and consider the tradeoffs, I wonder if writers organizations are a distraction or a necessity? What are writers organizations? Writers organizations are membership groups whose… Read more »
When Gabriela interviewed me for a DIY MFA podcast two years ago, one of the questions she asked was, “What are some of the themes of your writing life?” At first my mind went blank. I’d never thought about my writing life from a big-picture perspective before. But the more I considered my writing career… Read more »
Today I am delighted to have author Zinzi Clemmons on the show! Zinzi’s gorgeous debut novel, What We Lose, has already taken the literary world by storm establishing her as a strong new voice to watch. Raised in the Philadelphia suburbs by a South African mother and American father, Zinzi has much in common with… Read more »
I’s fair to say, without tension, there is no romance. There is tension in love. The very word attraction in physics is a force drawing objects together. A force. An interest. Evoking desire. To be attracted to someone implies a longing or a needing to be around that person. This means whenever they are not… Read more »
In my neck of the woods, it’s fall–time for flannel shirts, warm apple cider and reading up on my craft. Yes, that’s right, I’ll be reading rather than writing more. I prefer to throw myself into a more grueling writing schedule during January when there’s six inches of snow on the ground and a wind… Read more »
The most hurtful critique I ever received came from a well-meaning uncle who, after reading my first published novel, spent an hour on the phone picking it apart. The first thing I did after hanging up was to yell a few choice words I can’t repeat here. Unfortunately, as soon as I finished yelling I… Read more »
