Getting Too Personal So I don’t want to get too personal here but when I noodle around with my poetry—that’s exactly what I do. My first drafts are awkward, embarrassing, dripping with messy feelings. What comes out is the emotional equivalent of the sticky, oozy goo that comes out of the bottom of my car… Read more »
In this column, Life of a Writer, every 8 weeks or so I will share the next episode in my journey as a middle-aged woman who finally gets serious about her dream of becoming a published author. This episode is about continuing on after the unthinkable happens. In Episode 1 of this column, I wrote… Read more »
I don’t know how other authors of dual timeline novels decided to go that way, but this structure wasn’t my initial intention. I had an idea for a story about a young woman in seventeenth-century Spain, but I eventually realized that I couldn’t let her story begin and end there. I wanted there to be… Read more »
When publishing routes are so often discussed in terms of self-publishing vs. traditional publishing, it’s easy to forget about options beyond the binary—and even as someone who works in publishing, I’ll freely admit that I don’t talk about small presses enough! So while my previous column reinforced that trad pub/self-pub dichotomy, today I want to… Read more »
My memoir, The Ghost Marriage, wasn’t a book I planned to write. I had been working on short stories and a historical novel; it never occurred to me that anything in my own life would be interesting enough to write about. Then the bottom dropped out of my marriage, I went through a difficult divorce,… Read more »
In these times I hope authors continue crafting children’s and young adult books on sensitive subjects such as race. Compelling stories can penetrate young minds with staying powers that endure long beyond that first read. Early exposure to lives that differ from or connect to blossoming readers can shape their future attitudes and actions. I… Read more »
In this time of Zoom, many creators have found it difficult to compose anything. Authors have said the lack of external stimulation has made it difficult to engage with the creative process. Writers find inspiration from the world around them, whether it’s a snippet of overhead conversation, a waft of a particular scent that brings… Read more »
Hi, writers! I am so excited to debut my new column focusing on the craft of poetry. Let’s dive right in! Line breaks were one of the biggest challenges I faced when I first started writing poetry—knowing when to break a line, when to use short lines vs. long lines, and, perhaps most importantly, the… Read more »
I was working on my WIP recently. I have my project set up where each scene has its own file, which organizes things nicely, but also lets me easily see which scenes are coming up next. When I get to the end of one scene, I often look at the next scene and think, “Oh… Read more »
Many people dream of becoming an author but there’s one pesky thing that stands in their way: writing the book. In your head, it all seemed so easy. You envisioned grabbing a cup of freshly brewed coffee, sitting down at your laptop, and writing 10,000 words on a rainy afternoon. But in reality, sometimes when… Read more »
