Because I used a handful of the books that influenced me to introduce myself, this week I thought we might have a chat about craft books. I find books about the work of writing not only interesting but immensely useful. Right now, I’m making my way through John Truby’s brilliant The Anatomy of Story, scribbling notes in the margins and dog-earing pages. (For those of you cringing your way through that sentence, I…
Reading is a crucial part of a writer’s job, so this week, we’re discussing books that influenced us. I’m choosing to interpret that as “books that influenced your upcoming publication”, because if it was just books in general, I’d be here forever. Colleen McCullough’s Masters of Rome series: If you ever want to spend seven thousand pages immersed in the late Roman Republic (and seriously, who wouldn’t?), go swimming in…
I’m pleased to introduce everyone to one of the books I’ve talked the most about this summer, and by talking I mean to real people in real conversations in physical locations—not online. Just today I was talking about dog rentals, the run-pee app that tells you the best times during a movie to go to the bathroom, and self driving cars that come equipped with coffee machines. On the other…
Note: This week we’re talking about the long and arduous process of how we got our agents. I mean, maybe it’s not arduous for everyone, but damned if I didn’t learn a thing or two about patience along the way. I like statistics. When I was in the process of looking for representation, it felt like all the stories I heard were people who’d queried a handful of agents and…
Y’all. I didn’t get home until almost 7 last night. I’ve only spent one entire day at home since August 13th, and I am a homebody. I (try to) maintain a full-time job, a healthy marriage, and I’m currently actively working on THREE manuscripts. And that’s not taking into account the dogs, or exercise, or eating real, healthy food on a regular basis. I clearly did not get the memo…
There are a great many people to whom I owe a hefty debt of gratitude for the fact that in just a few months I’ll be able to walk into my local indie and see a piece of my heart on the shelf. Each and every one of those people (Hopefully! Good glory, you would not believe the nightmares!) will be thanked in my acknowledgments. But there are a…
What better way to get to know a person than through the books that shaped their imaginations, right? When I say I grew up with my nose in a book, I really mean it. I took home stacks of books from the library every week and invariably read my way through the whole pile before our next visit. Couple that with the fact that I lived in a small town…
Congratulations to Anna May Russell, winner of our #DebBallGiveaway of LITTLE & LION by Brandy Colbert. Thank you so much to yesterday’s guest, Hazel Gaynor! If you haven’t already, enter the #DebBallGiveaway of THE COTTINGLEY SECRET to win a copy by sharing our post on Facebook and/or retweeting the following tweet: RT to Enter! Interview w/ @HazelGaynor + #DebBallGiveaway of THE COTTINGLEY SECRET! https://t.co/07xLoV4SS3 pic.twitter.com/M4ytY643a5 — The Debutante Ball (@DebutanteBall) August 19,…
Congratulations to Lee Elliott, winner of our #DebBallGiveaway of THE WAGES OF SIN by Kaite Welsh. We were so pleased to welcome Kelly J. Ford as our guest yesterday. If you haven’t already, pick up a copy of COTTONMOUTHS or enter to win a copy by sharing our post on Facebook and/or retweeting the following tweet: RT to Enter! Interview with @Kelly_J_Ford + #DebBallGiveaway of #COTTONMOUTHS https://t.co/bK9EmwKrjM pic.twitter.com/ILGgQnz7K3 — The Debutante Ball (@DebutanteBall)…
My books LIMELIGHT (forthcoming 2018) and SMALL ADMISSIONS are works of fiction, stories I made up to entertain and amuse. I used settings I already knew something about and then further researched, and I invented characters and situations to create drama and humor. However, I, like pretty much every writer I know, have a novel “in the drawer” – the one that never got published. That book is about a…
