I used to have this weird typo tic where I never got the acronym for work-in-progress right. It always came out WOP. I’ve even tweeted about my wop and never noticed until it was too late. Maybe there was something Freudian about this little tic. Because “wop” always makes me think about a cartoon where some character is being repeatedly bludgeoned over the head. Not that my works…
When I sold From Unseen Fire, I got that coveted thing: a multi-book deal. Three, in fact! A guarantee that the story would go on, and we could stop trying to sell the blatant lie that the first book was “a standalone with series potential”. How magnificent! I could traipse merrily into Book Two in a state of security and confidence. After all, I’d already written some scenes, back when…
A freelance editor once told me that in the world of writers there are plotters and there are free stylists. Plotters start with an outline in hand, marching through prose and dialogue until they arrive at an ending conceived on a whiteboard or napkin long before. Free stylists– that’s me– start with a character (if they’re lucky) or a sentence (if they’re not), and are as shocked as their readers will…
Talking about Next Book* feels funny to me. I have a difficult time talking about what I’m working on, because it’s constantly changing. If you had asked me early on in the writing of MODERN GIRLS, I would have told you that Dottie had gotten pregnant by her boyfriend Abe, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to marry him; the story took place in Newark, NJ; and her mother Rose…
I have learned an important thing about my writing process this year, and that is that I am a loyal, one-book kind of girl. Writing a novel is very much like entering a love affair for me—it’s consuming. I spend all day day-dreaming about my characters and spend sleepless nights devoted to their well-being. I become completely focused on what they want and need and how they are feeling. So…
YAY for second books! It’s so fun hearing about everyone’s sophomore efforts — and seeing how different the process has been for each of us. For Dhonielle and I, our contract was a two-book set up — but we didn’t know until after our first editorial meeting whether the second book would be a companion novel, sequel or something else altogether. Luckily, it was a sequel, and that’s what D…
This week on the Deb Ball, we’re talking about what we’d do differently the second time around. And honestly, I might as well just direct you to Amy’s post from Tuesday, because she nailed it. So many things were chaos on this debut journey. So many things were out of my (and Dhonielle’s control). And being they Type A that I am, I fretted and fretted and then occasionally fretted…
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…
Congratulations to Carrie Mansfield, winner of the signed copy of BETWEEN by guest author Megan Whitmer! Check back next Sunday for the winner of THE MOMENT OF EVERYTHING, by this week’s guest author — and fellow Deb — Shelly King… From the 2015 Debs… Colleen Oakley flew to the brrrrrrrrrrrr state of Minnesota (OK, it was 60 degrees, but that’s sweater weather for this Atlanta girl!) this weekend for the Heartland…
