For me, it began in the third grade. I wrote my first story, called The Haunted Meatball. My teacher, Mrs. Brennan, told me it was wonderful. So wonderful, in fact, that she was going to send it off to have it published in a children’s magazine. So off went my first story, into the world. And we waited. We waited for weeks. Then months. Then one day, she took me…
It’s funny. Although I can think of — and regale you with — endless tales of the rejection I’ve endured, most of it hasn’t come in the form of letters. No, rejection for me has always come in the form of deafening, endless silence. No news is always bad news, in my experience. This, I think, is a good thing. From the jobs I’ve interviewed for (back before I managed…
When a literary agent for GOOD THINGS called to offer me literary representation, I was sitting in my car in the parking lot of Sears in Hilo, irritated beyond belief. For starters, I had made my husband and four-year old daughter drive all around the island in search of the right infant car seat (I was pregnant and on a mission). No luck. I was trying to save money by…
When I got the call from my agent telling me HarperCollins had made an offer on my novel, I was cleaning the toilet. It’s funny… you envision moments like this, fantasize about them for months and years, then when they happen, they never quite play out the way you had imagined. I was in my rattiest house cleaning clothes. I had the white plastic brush in my hand and was…
Good Things Debut Countdown! Larramie at Seize a Daisy is hosting Mia King’s Debut of Good Things tomorrow, please stop by! Authors Living the Dream! Amy MacKinnon of Writers Group Blog landed her dream agent! Congratulations from the Debs, Amy! New Links! Patricia Wood, debut author of LOTTERY coming from Putnam this August can be found blogging about writing on her sailboat in Hawaii! Holly Kennedy blogs at Author In The Trenches…about boxers (the underwear,…
Well, based upon my replies this week you’ve likely come to the conclusion that I’m a bit of an organizational freak (because you’ve all been so carefully following my replies, right?). But when I look around, frankly, I don’t have much to organize. When it comes to paraphernalia, I’m a bareback kind of gal. I have one laptop, one red pen, one spiral notebook, one cardboard box. That’s it. That’s…
I do my best work in bed. Really. This isn’t to say that I can’t write in other places, like my desk, for instance. Or the library. Or on the backs of crumbled pieces of random paper while waiting in line at the grocery store. I’ve scribbled dialogue on airplane barf bags, come up with new scenes in the middle of a restaurant (where I had to excuse myself to…
I wrote my first (as yet unpublished) novel out longhand in notebooks back when we lived without electricity. Then I’d take the notebooks and my laptop to a café and type it all in. I had a full time job back then and I wrote in the mornings and evenings (and okay, sometimes during staff meetings). When I sat down to write my second book (soon to be published as…
The Debutantes are honored to present guest blogger Allison Winn Scotch, debut author of The Department of Lost and Found, coming from Morrow, May 2007. Hey debs – Thanks a million for having me here! I’m honored to be filling in today! Okay, now to the nitty-gritty. For me, the writing process is not unlike going to the gym: I know that I should, I know that I have to,…
I’m one of those readers always looking for parallels between protagonists and the writers who create them. The extent to which writers use autobiographical information (or not) interests me. I know writers who take the “write what you know” advice to the extreme and write themselves into the story in a way that almost borders on memoir. I’m not saying this doesn’t make for great fiction: it often does. Here’s…
