I while back, I read a YA reviewer’s blog who named Tom Angleberger’s The Strange Case of Origami Yoda as her favorite book of the year. This really struck me, since she’d read and reviewed most of my favorite YA titles. I was excited to finally read the series with Son #1, and we just finished the second book,...
“It’s okay to take a break.” My husband said this to me yesterday. It’s one of those things I know to be true, but it helps to hear someone else reaffirm it. In the ever-shifting balance of life, family time and writing time keep up their antagonistic struggle. The blog usually gets the shortest stick in that draw, but I wanted...
On any given day in the writing community, you can find a new batch of query contests, pitch competitions, and giveaways. I love that part of the blog-o-sphere, but over the past year or so, I’ve been truly struck by the added dimension of generosity in our industry. So many agents, editors, and authors donate their time...
Revising a novel can be overwhelming. It requires a different frame of mind than drafting, and it can take so many different paths. I’ve always used story-boarding for revisions, meaning I have a large white board with a chapter grid and tons of sticky notes. But I feel like I’ve gained so many different perspectives since the...
For a while now, I’ve thought that the greatest secondary benefit of being a writer was fulfilling my fan-girl fantasies of meeting the authors of books that I love. At my first writing conference, I had lunch with Charlaine Harris. (Well, we sat at the same table, and I was so tongue-tied that I barely said two words to...
Welcome, 2013! Sorry I’m a little late to the party, as usual. The blog was a bit quiet this holiday season, but I’m hoping to be back in action starting next month. I wanted to get at least one post in for January. I’m not doing resolutions this year, but I do have a few...
2012 is almost over, and we’re all still here! I’ve been enjoying a relaxing week with my family leading up to Christmas. I’ve baked. I’ve written. I’ve read. A Lord of the Rings movie marathon followed our family reading and trip to see the Hobbit on the big screen. It’s been a good week, and it’s...
Today I’m reviewing Midnight City by J. Baron Mitchell, another book I read courtesy of the Southern Book Bloggers ARC tours. The Summary, adapted from Goodreads: Earth has been conquered by an alien race known as the Assembly. Holt Hawkins is a bounty hunter, and his current target is Mira Toombs, an infamous treasure seeker...
Happy December! First for a NaNoWriMo update, in case you were curious: I won! (Sort of.) I wrote eighteen chapters and a little over 50,000 words in the month of November on my YA magical realism manuscript codenamed Serenity. (A little Joss Whedon homage, which has nothing to do with the book at all, but...
Hi everyone! I apologize for my very sporadic posts. I decided to join in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), and 1700+ words per day on a shiny new manuscript doesn’t leave much time for other writing endeavors. Honestly, I never expected to come close to 50,000 words in one month. I average 1,000 words per day...
