I first met Lisa at HippoCamp 2016 where I attended her incredibly useful session on writing about one topic across multiple pieces. That was my first writing conference ever, and I was so intimidated by everyone that I only spoke to something like five people, of which Lisa was one. We chit chatted in the waiting area to pitch agents and editors for our then-unpublished memoirs, and although I don’t…
Summer—the most wonderful time of the year, in spite of Christmas carols stating otherwise. Swimming and sundresses and Birkenstocks and never being too cold. Baseball games with mom friends who have delightful puppies that I get to pet and play with and give back again. Taking the boys to the lake. Jumping off of rocks and skipping stones and the freezing bite of water against sunburned skin. Sitting outside…
Trigger warning: depression, anxiety. People who have experienced trauma may associate the excitement of success with the same physiological reactions as trauma. They avoid subjecting themselves to excitement-inducing circumstances, which causes them to be almost phobic about success. Psychology Today This week’s topic (navigating failure) isn’t hard or scary for me, because I’ve chosen failure for so much of my life. Navigating failure is historically pretty comfortable for me….
Writers are my movie stars. There are the writers who got me through childhood, and writers who changed the way I thought about writing, and others whose names I chanted to give me courage in the months leading up to the release of my memoir, Girlish: Growing Up in a Lesbian Home. I can’t forget my writing mentors in grad school or the yet-unpublished writers I am dying to see emerge…
I can’t write on paper. Not only is my handwriting wretched, but my hand can’t keep up with my brain, so I’m constantly writing letters out of order. Add in that I’m left-handed, and it’s a miracle that anyone can ever read anything I write at all. I didn’t like writing much of anything until my mother bought our first home computer circa 1985, when I was twelve. Suddenly, I…
This week, I am excited to introduce Rowenna Miller to the Debutante Ball! I know Rowenna through her editor, who was my editor back before she moved over to Orbit, and I’m delighted to have made her acquaintance this year. Torn is one of my favorite things that I’ve read in the past few months, a delightfully unique take on fantasy fiction. Rowenna sets her story in a world analogous to 1780s/90s France/England,…
I am having all kinds of success with my author interviews lately. This week is another biggie: Catherine McKenzie, who I met at the Writer’s Digest Conference in NYC a few years ago when she was a presenter. Catherine’s previous books have been highly acclaimed bestsellers, and her latest, The Good Liar, is no exception: named by Goodreads as one of the hottest thrillers of 2018, it’s been busy racking…
I love talking about my book. I love posting on social media about my book. Having my book come into the world is one of the most exciting things that has ever happened to me. What I don’t love is feeling as if I’m a show-off, or begging my friends for help. Every time I post about my book, I’m secretly ducking the negative anti-promotion vibes I’m sure are headed…
When I started writing in a serious, dedicated way, I had 95 undergrad credits and three active student loans. I didn’t have a bachelor’s degree or an MFA and had never been to a writers’ workshop, but I believed in my stories. As a gift, my parents paid for me to take a week-long writing workshop at the Chautauqua Institution, and more importantly, volunteered to babysit my boys (one of…
I love that my normal posting day is Tuesday, which is the day new books come into the world. (No one knows why this is, not even Judy Blume. I know this because I was in her bookstore on a Tuesday when they were shelving new books and I asked Judy Blume why books always release on Tuesdays and she said that she had no idea. Investigative journalism at…
