Sooner or later every aspiring author is going to be told that they need to work on building their brand, improving their platform, increasing their presence. I grate at these terms. I don’t like to think of myself as a brand. I’m a person. I have a personality. I have interests and quirks and an aesthetic and a manner of speaking, and these things transmit through my writing and my…
I’ve written previously about how I have an MBA, not an MFA. And how that didn’t work out so great for me. So when I was unemployed and stuck in a tiny apartment while raising a newborn baby, it wasn’t a great time to contemplate going back to school for yet another masters degree. Plus, I reasoned, I’d always been told I was a great writer. How hard could it…
This week’s interview is with Elizabeth Everett whose debut novel, A LADY’S FORMULA FOR LOVE will be released next week. Preorder now! Below, Elizabeth talks about the story behind her book’s title, advice for her younger self, her editing process and her love of early mornings. Enjoy! ABOUT ELIZABETH Elizabeth Everett lives in Upstate New York with her family. She likes going for long walks or (very) short runs to…
A funny consequence of having a book coming out is that friends and family (and the occasional stranger on the internet) now come to me for advice on writing and publishing. It’s weird to give advice because I feel like I’m still learning these things myself. I don’t have an MFA – I literally just learned about the concept of negative capability this summer! But when I’m asked…
This week’s interview is with Kelly Duran, whose book CAN’T TAKE IT BACK tells the interconnected stories of four women over the course of a kindergarten school year. Read below about Kelly’s transformative trip through Europe, her hope for connecting with readers through her books, and her recognition of writing as an integral and necessary part of her life that enhances all her other roles. ABOUT KELLY Kelly Duran…
Thanks so much for stopping by the Deb Ball! This time we’re talking about our paths to publication. Join in the conversation by sharing where you’re at on your own path. Do you have dreams of writing but are having trouble putting pen to paper? Do you already have several full novels written but are struggling to find an agent? Are you somewhere in between? We hope you’ll find some…
I wrote last week about how I hadn’t planned on becoming a writer, and how writing was something I came to after being unemployed for a long time. So already my path to publication was a little longer and had more forking paths than some people. I completed the rough draft of my novel in about six months in 2011, and I spent the next four years first learning how…
So, here we are. The end of the line. The beginning of everything. This has been a great year. It’s not the year I thought I would get on the tin, but it’s taught me a lot of lessons and kept me on my toes. I’m sure next year will be as… eventful. (I’m giving you the side-eye, next year. You’d better behave.) We’re supposed to finish off our tenure…
I simply can’t believe it’s been a whole year. This week, we’re talking about what we learned as a Debutante. To be honest, this entry was hard to write, because my expectations about what I thought would happen this year debuting Architects of Memory and what actually did happen were so incredibly different. Like Pluto-versus-the-Sun different. When I applied to be a Deb, my release date was January. I was…
I’m turning forty this year. And when you’re a middle-aged mom writing science fiction at four in the morning, it’s hard to look at all the startling young ingenues in their adorable city apartments, writing life-changing novels, getting MFAs, doing interviews with Lithub— —Let’s just say that I’ve been there. I understand. I thought my life was over in my early thirties when I turned out a truly awful epic…
