I’m going to shoot straight with you and tell you something I suspect a lot of authors are afraid to admit: every single book has its own unique set of limitations. There’s no such thing as the One Great American Novel (or memoir). The reality is as authors we make thousands of choices, and sometimes those choices create give-and-take sacrifices. It turns out a single book can’t be everything.** When…
I’d love to write a post for today about how easy it was to find an agent. It’d go like this: I whipped up a few query letters, shipped them off, continued to write another book without any angst at all, and then magically one day a phone call and offer of representation changed my life. Simple! No big deal! Alas, that’s not how life unfolded. In reality, it took 61…
Congratulations to Theresa Snyder for winning a copy of THE ASSISTANTS by Camille Perri! We send our thanks to Anjali Mitter Duva for being our guest on The Debutante Ball yesterday! If you haven’t already, please pick up a copy of her novel FAINT PROMISE OF RAIN. You can still enter the GIVEAWAY: RETWEET on Twitter, and/or SHARE on Facebook by noon (EST) September 30th to win a copy of FAINT PROMISE OF RAIN (US only). We’ll select and contact the…
We’ve only been writing for the Debutante Ball for three weeks now, but already I am ruing my decision to follow Amy Poeppel’s Tuesday posts. She is hysterical! What a tough act to follow. I hope you caught her post yesterday about where she likes to…do it. Yes, that’s right, this week we are discussing where we like to write. I may not be quite as funny as Amy, but I…
I’ve always been a reader. My first word was “book,” and some of my most treasured childhood memories are from the days I spent cozied up with Roald Dahl stories. By the time I was thirteen, I discovered Arthur C. Clarke and Ray Bradbury, gateway authors into the science fiction world. My geekiness soared tenfold. Perhaps those authors give the impression I was a sophisticated child reader; my big sister…
By happenstance, today marks five months until my memoir, Caged Eyes: An Air Force Cadet’s Story of Rape and Resilience, hits shelves. As my publicist said, “It’s go time,” and I can’t think of a more amazing way of celebrating than beginning my year here on The Debutante Ball. To say this memoir has been a long time in the making is a comical understatement. The first time I thought…
The topic this week is CHILDHOOD MEMORY. We were supposed to begin at sundown, but Dad didn’t get home from work until eight. “Mrs. Bollag is going to be mad,” I stated when he walked through the door. It took him a second to remember what tonight was. “Tell you what,” he said, “let’s pretend we live in California. It’s five o’clock there. We’re right on time.” Dad was a genius….
