I’m finally home from the United Kingdom. England is my favorite place to visit, and I was so inspired by the spooky and endearing Corfe Castle and Old Harry Rocks, both in the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset. Our day in Windsor was like stepping onto the set of Downton Abbey. (No, I didn’t cheat...
For my last post, I felt a bit down about the constant ugliness in the world. I didn’t want to link to the specific issues that bugged me because I didn’t want to give them any more coverage. So I challenged myself to find good things happening. People helping people, instead of tearing each other...
Source We all live in glass houses in this digital age. I write about this loss of privacy in my YA fiction, and the idea just won’t stop cropping up in the real world. Athletes and celebrities seem to take the brunt of the public eye, but they’re not the only ones anymore. It spans...
I mentioned in a previous post that I have a thing for contests. It may be time for me to step back and do things the old fashioned way, but as a PSA to all of you out there in the query trenches, here are a few of the amazing contests coming soon to a...
Online pitch events are exciting and addictive when you have a query-ready manuscript. Recently we’ve had WriteOnCon, Operation Awesome’s Secret Agent Contest, Brenda Drake’s Pitch Wars, and Adventures in YA Publishing’s Pitch Plus Five. And that was just August! The primary goal of contests seems to be grabbing an agent’s attention and garnering requests for...
I had this great conversation with a teenager a few weeks ago. He was a stranger to me, and circumstances just happened to have us sitting next to each other. He started by asking me what I was reading. (It was Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo.) I gave him a quick summary, and he...
With summer slipping away, so many changes are coming. In the grand scheme of things, after a month filled with one tragedy after another in the news, I’m looking forward to ushering in a new season full of potential, growth, and thanksgiving. Today I’m photo blogging with images to remind me of where I’ve been...
Source Over the past few months, I’ve been working on revisions. While incorporating feedback from various sources on my own work, I’ve also critiqued pages for others from a wide range of genres. The elusive voice, the unique filter that makes a work our own, strikes me as both the most difficult thing to revise...
Visit Pens for Paws here This year’s Pens for Paws Auction is right around the corner! This online auction, hosted by my friend Angelica R. Jackson, raises funds for Fat Kitty City, a no-kill, cage-free cat (and dog!) sanctuary in El Dorado Hills, California. She has fabulous items for writers and others in the publishing...
Recently a writer I know and respect sent out a message asking readers and friends to please review her new book on the various sites. (Goodreads, Amazon, etc.) It was all completely on the up-and-up. She didn’t ask for positive reviews, just honesty from those who’d read it, in the hopes that they might balance...
