After a year together, I guess great Debs think alike. Which is why two of my dance partners have already posted goodbye clips rather than try to say the farewell entirely on their own. Because, really, can anyone capture the turmoil of parting ways as perfectly as a good on-screen moment? No. Just, no. Farewells are filled with mixed emotions, and I’ve got them all. There is, of course, straight…

How fitting that I should be writing about bad habits at 11:15 the night before this post goes live. If you can’t tell, my worst habit when it comes to writing is….drum roll…procrastination. For as long as I can remember, I’ve worked best on a deadline. In tenth grade, I’d start my papers the night before they were due, long after everyone else had gone to sleep. Sometimes I write…

Ah, voice. Thankfully, my fellow Debs have taken an admirable crack at defining this most literary of terms, because I would be at a total loss. Like Joanne said, and Erika too, it’s a nebulous concept. Voice is like porn. You know it when you see it. As a writer of nonfiction, my greatest intention is for my voice to be true to who I am. That the person a…

I’m reposting an excerpt from my personal blog today, because I love this list and I’m dying to hear who you’d add! (And I loved that Deb Joanne touched on this too… It’s a fun game!) Here, the literary characters I would want as a best friend: 1) Boy, The Giving Tree. Some say he’s selfish and greedy, I say he’s lonely. He loves his tree. He could use a BFF. 2) Jo March, Little Women. Or maybe…

If you’ve been keeping up with the Debs this week, you know that everyone’s marketing plan is a bit different. We share elements–Facebook and Twitter and blogs, oh my!–but everyone emphasizes different aspects of the promotional plan, and that largely has to do with the content of  the stories. For example, since my publication, I’ve spent a lot of time visiting and Skyping with book clubs. For MWF, it made good sense,…

My first thought when I saw this week’s topic? Fifty Shades, of course. If there were ever a time when hot books were all the rage, it makes sense it would be the year of the crazy heat wave. It’s almost as if Christian Grey himself brought about our 100 degree temps. But seriously, I’m excited to have the opportunity to discuss this latest literary phenomenon. Because I am dying to…

“Reading is everything. Reading makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something, learned something, become a better person. Reading makes me smarter. Reading gives me something to talk about later on. Reading is the unbelievably healthy way my attention deficit disorder medicates itself. Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it’s a way to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and it’s a way of…

I’ve decided to repost an entry from my personal blog today, since it seems especially fitting for this forum. Enjoy! “Over the past decade, academic researchers…from York University have gathered data indicating that fiction-reading activates neuronal pathways in the brain that measurably help the reader better understand real human emotion — improving his or her overall social skillfulness.” (“The Business Case for Reading Novels“; Harvard Business Review Blog Network, 1/12/2012)…

I’m the last person who has any right to write a post about spring cleaning. Or any type of cleaning. Just ask my husband. We were recently talking about my next book—which is about celebrity obsession and perfectionism, and how I’m going to try and incorporate the aspects of celebrities’ lives that I most admire into my own (Jennifer Aniston’s fitness, Gwyneth Paltrow’s cooking, Jennifer Garner’s marriage, etc.)—and Matt’s response…