I’ve shared here on the DebBall before my sad, terrible, no good tale of soul-shattering rejection. As writers, we’ve all faced our share of rejections — and the bad news is, just having a book out in the world doesn’t mean the end of it. Nope, you’ll still get countless rejections every time you go on sub, other people’s books will hit best-of or bestseller lists while yours languishes, you’ll…
Last night, Dhonielle and I were putting the final touches on our revision of Book Two, due today (or really, due yesterday but who’s counting?), when it happened. At just about 11 p.m., the pipe under the dishwasher broke, flooding the building’s communal basement. And our neighbors knocked and fretted and a plumber crawled out of his warm, cozy bed (I’m presuming, of course) to make a midnight housecall. All…
Today at the ball, we welcome the awesome CINDY L. RODRIGUEZ, a fellow debut author, Fearless 15ers, and member of the #WeNeedDiverseBooks team. In her debut, WHEN REASON BREAKS, which hit shelves this week, Elizabeth Davis and Emily Delgado seem to have little in common except Ms. Diaz’s English class and the solace they find in the words of Emily Dickinson. But both are struggling to cope with secrets and…
This week on the Deb Ball, we’re celebrating books we love, books we dogear and reread and recommend, books we wish we wrote. And you know me, I thought I’d put a spin on it. Because there’s so much more to the writing life than just the final product. So here are five women whose craft I covet, but whose literary life I also admire unfailingly. And this list is…
Okay, so by now, the picture has become quite clear. Writers — the lot of us here at the Deb Ball, at least (but I’d reckon most of us!) — are all thieves. We borrow bits and pieces of people, little quirks, bigger traits, fatal flaws, from those all around us to make our characters come to life, to make them feel real and tangible and oh-so-human. But the people…
Today on the Ball, we welcome fellow debut author GREER MACALLISTER, who’s first novel, THE MAGICIAN’S LIE, which is being called WATER FOR ELEPHANTS meets THE NIGHT CIRCUS The book centers on a notorious female illusionist who stands accused of murdering her husband — and she has only one night to prove her innocence. We caught up with Macallister to talk about parenting and writing, her childhood fave, and how…
Way back in the beginning of our publishing journey with HarperTeen, before we’d turned in revisions or locked the title or done anything really, our lovely editor asked us for thoughts on the cover. Dhonielle and I were pretty stoked — we’d heard stories of author input being completely ignored, so this was a pleasant surprise, especially as a debut. Knowing this, we said somewhat wishy-washy things like, oh, hopefully…
Starting grad school four years ago, I thought I had the writerly thing down. After all, I worked in big New York media and then got a degree in screenwriting. But I was a total fiction newbie, and there plenty of things I learned the hard way. Like about workshopping. And trading pages. And even trading fulls. The bottom line? I learned about developing relationships with other writers — especially…
So yesterday, I called Dhonielle all in a panic — after making her PROMISE not to beat me up — for a pep talk and a bit of the state of the union. That is, my union with writing. As you may know by now, I tend to be a Master Procrastinator. That means, in November, after Book Two officially kicked my ass, instead of going hardcore on my WIP…
Okay, I get it. The weeping. The FAULT IN OUR STARS comparisons (which really make sense). The actual whole cancer thing. But don’t dismiss my buddy Colleen Oakley’s BEFORE I GO as just a “cancer book.” Because it’s so much more than that. It’s a love story. Between Daisy and Jack, who met when he rescued her from a bumblebee, and are opposites in so many ways. It’s about Jack’s…
