Families are an amorphous thing. Parts of them you’re born with, parts of them you marry into, and parts of them you kinda just adopt extralegally. They grow and they shrink and they grow some more – the only thing that’s truly consistent about them is that they’re in flux. But there’s always a core, too, a heart to any family. Same is true of your writing community. Mine’s been…

Omygoodness it’s that time already?? I remember reading the Debutante Ball all of last year, waiting and waiting for that application window to open. I love writing about writing, about process, about story and worldbuilding and characters and other books. I also wanted a regular, dependable outlet during all the Crazy Wot Is Debut Year, and an opportunity to meet other authors in a similar place. I was thrilled beyond…

I’ve already written before about my writing education – that I had none. Or at least no formal one. By the time I knew MFA’s were even a thing, I was three years deep into a Classics degree. But that’s okay – I’d already spent six years writing fanfiction, which turned out to be as good as an informal education. There’s a common piece of advice thrown about in the…

When I was in middle school, I wrote at night. I could crank out a 10 page chapter of fanfic in under a week and format the html and have it up for my small following of three by Saturday, every Saturday. Editing wasn’t really something I understood, let alone did. All drafts were final drafts, but it was so much fun. Nevermind that I could never finish anything. Nevermind…

Easter eggs! We all love them. Sugary and chocolately and occasionally not chocolately but almost always delicious – Oh wait, we’re not talking about candy this week? Oops, my bad. We’re talking about the other kind of Easter egg, the kind that is a personal slip of a joke anyone who doesn’t know you – and even most of those who do – would probably miss. I love learning about…

This week we’re talking about where we live (or have lived) and how that influenced our books. This topic’s an easy one for me because Ghadid wouldn’t exist if I’d never moved to Arizona. Every story I’ve written has reflected the place I was living at the time, from swampy, buggy, storm-brewing Florida to gray and damp and otherworldly Seattle to arid yet surprisingly vibrant Arizona. When I describe the…