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The Dangers of a Good Book
image by photosteve101 Last week, I read a fantastic book. Good news, right? As writers we are all readers first, and there’s an unmatched joy in disappearing into a well-written book, or we wouldn’t...
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Checking In With a Dual Social Media Identity
Five months ago, I set out my rules for Social Media the Second Time Around — what I did, and planned to do, differently as I built a social media identity from scratch for my pseudonym. Five months...
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What You Would Have Learned at BEA
The publishing world was a curious mix of hyperactivity and near-total silence last week, which can mean only one thing: Book Expo America, known as BEA. It’s an absolutely immense industry-only...
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Everything Is Writing
Image by Srividya Balayogi How many times have we complained about the business of writing? We’ve heard others do it, we’ve done it, the internet is wall-to-wall jam-packed with it. “I love writing,...
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Quit Your Day Job
image by Kate Haskell I have long been an advocate for not writing full-time. Spoiler alert: I still am. There’s a great deal of pressure in both directions. We all get romanced by the notion of the...
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The Labor of Launch
image by Ashley Webb It’s not uncommon, especially among those of us who are both writers and moms, to compare books and babies. For a while there was even a blog called Book Pregnant. In my...
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You’re Such a Character
Image by The Magic Tuba Pixie As an author, especially one just starting out, you’re often told about the importance of your “brand.” You’re lectured that how you act on social media, what you talk...
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Social Media the Second Time Around
image by Steven Depolo As I’ve mentioned here before, my next book is coming out under a pseudonym — which is energizing and daunting in equal measure. One area where the chickens are really coming...
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Learning to Love the Synopsis
Image by Kamile There are those who say writing the query and/or the synopsis of the novel is harder than writing the entire novel. I wouldn’t go quite that far, but I’ve always hated writing synopses....
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The Dangers of Storytelling
image by Surian Soosay As writers, storytelling is our business and our art. It’s our core skill. Writing is about putting words together to create a coherent tale, taking our readers on an unexpected...
View ArticleLove Letter to a Sloppy First Draft
Oh, sloppy first draft, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. One. You exist. Unquestionably, the best thing about a sloppy first draft is that it’s better than no draft at all. If there’s nothing...
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Writing in the Lacuna
image by Les Haines I must admit I had no idea what the word “lacuna” meant until Barbara Kingsolver released a novel by that name in 2010. Since then, I’ve found plenty of occasion to use it. The...
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Best or Worst? Yes.
photo by Karen RoeA Tale of Two Cities famously begins: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Today, that’s true of publishing. You’d be forgiven for thinking that it’s the worst,...
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Free Books and What to Do With Them
image by Jerry Paffendorf The free book is a delightful and welcome creature. Even more delightful is the Advance Review Copy or ARC, also called a galley. These are, as the name suggests, advance...
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Do Authors Owe Us Their Whole Selves?
Big news from the New York Times this weekend! Oh, maybe not the news you’re thinking of. A totally different outcome of deep investigative reporting that excavated long-held secrets… they’ve announced...
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Politics, Authors and Readers
image by Jasen Miller The question of whether or not authors should feel free to express their political views is not a new one. However, the current heated political environment gives the question new...
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How Do You Cook Your Books?
I’ve gotten a bit of a reputation with dinner guests at my house. If they like something I serve, they’ll ask for a recipe. My answer is the same about 97 percent of the time: “Well, there’s not really...
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Publishing Moves On. Do Readers?
Kudzu, by Katie Ashdown It’s been more than six years since my debut novel, The Kitchen Daughter, came out. Most days that seems like an eternity. Publishing is slow and merciless, like kudzu: in a...
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Seasons Of Writing
I’ve never been one of those writers who writes every single day, rain or shine, all year ’round. It works perfectly for some. It doesn’t work for me. But I’m also not a writer who waits on...
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Gifts Writers Can Give Themselves
image by asenat29 Tis the season, right? There are plenty of great gift lists around on what you can give the writers in your life, like this one from Modern Mrs. Darcy. And an aptly named bottle is...
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