First drafts are my favorite drafts. I love the immersion in the story and the constant internal pressure to write and write until it is all out. When I’m writing a first draft I don’t screw off much on social media, don’t return emails promptly, and often drive by my exits on the expressway without noticing. During my first draft, I’m definitely a fly by the seat of my pants…
It’s fortuitous that this topic falls here, at the end of November, as I’ve spent the past 26 days frantically drafting Book 2 of the Aven Cycle as my NaNoWriMo project (with intermittent work on two other projects at the same time). It’s also a bit unfortuitous — I’ve been so busy drafting that I haven’t had a lot of time to think about how I draft. What leaps to…
When my first book is published, I will be forty-seven years old. This dream has been cyclical—one I’ve embraced and abandoned multiple times throughout my life. I wrote my first story in the sixth grade. It was depressing: An old, lonely widow (who loves celery) visits the grave of his wife. I gave it to my dad for his birthday, and was baffled by how hard he laughed after he…
I sat in my very first writer’s workshop the week after I left my soon-to-be-ex-husband. I was going to chase my dreams, damn it, along with raising two boys in diapers and finding a job and a place to live. The presenter said something along the lines of, “you can’t write a memoir before you are forty,” or maybe it was, “no one wants to publish a memoir by someone…
In 2013 I wrote a book called A SMALL LIFE. I revised it and by the fall, began querying it (much too soon). I scoured Janet Reid’s archives on Query Shark, I read through Query Tracker, researched who represented my favorite books, and assembled a list of agents to query. On that initial list was Mollie Glick, who was then at Foundry. She wasn’t a new agent, but as I…
Once upon a time, I was a single, childless, 27-year old teacher who lived alone with only a dog and eleventy-billion hours of free time to do whatever I wanted. I’d go to the gym every day. For hours! I’d go out with friends. At night! I’d get ready, grab my purse, put the dog in the house and then walk out the door, without even a thought about…
With gratitude, sadness, excitement, and pride, I say good-bye to The Debutante Ball. I have so much respect for the incoming 2018 Debs, Cass, Kimmery, Kaitlyn, Lara, and Julie, so it feels wonderful to hand the Deb Ball over to these accomplished, smart women writers. I wish them all the very best. And I send my thanks once again to the 2016 Debs for allowing me the honor of participating…
This week we’re blogging about our second book efforts. I’m here to weigh in as the Deb Ball Team slacker! Yes, I’m the only one of the five who does not have a second book in at least a completed draft form… …and I’m okay with that. I’ve already written a few times here about my struggle to write my follow-up memoir to Caged Eyes. I believe in this second…
Question: So you’ve published your first novel, SMALL ADMISSIONS. I hear you’re working on a second. Has it been easier this time around? I hear the second book is a piece of cake. Answer: A piece of cake? Seriously? Ha. LIMELIGHT TIMELINE April 2015: Sign contract for SMALL ADMISSIONS! Yay! Celebrate. May 2015: Time to start thinking about that new book! Do that, meaning… sit and think. Gaze off into space….
*** Calling Debut Authors! Now Accepting Applications for the 2018 Debutante Ball! Read this post to learn more. Hurry! The deadline is July 28! *** This week the Debutantes are talking all about summer, and what that means for our writing life. I chuckled as I read Amy’s post about fitting it all in during her chaotic summer months. I’ve got to imagine, with two kids and as a stay-at-home mom, I’ve got…
