I have to confess that when I eyed the topic for this week that I didn’t really want to write about it. I have a bunch of trunked manuscripts, and all of them are tied into a traumatic time in my life that I never want to revisit. I was much younger. I didn’t know as much about the world. Three pages in, and I start cringing. On top of…
I was sailing along, finishing the last few edits to ARCHITECTS OF MEMORY’s sequel, when an e-mail came in from my amazing editor, informing me that ARCHITECTS’ cold reader had caught a medium-sized plothole during the second pass. That’s right. During the second pass. For those of you not familiar with the publishing process, by the time a book has reached the second pass, it should be nearly perfect. Production…
Have you seen the film Midsommer? It’s an excellent horror fairy tale that gets even better upon repeat viewings. To be honest, I’ve seen it at least 6 times. I find myself enamored with the storytelling and Easter eggs that can only be caught on the 2nd or 3rd watch. For The Goddess Twins, I have an Easter egg that I am pretty excited for readers to uncover for themselves….
I wrote my first novel about a world I’d been living in forever: the large public school. As a teacher for nearly 20 years, I was intimately familiar with the settings, the procedures, the schedules, the conflicts, and the characters that typically populate an illustrious institution of learning. In fact, at one stage in my revision, I was asked to make things less realistic. “What’s with all the armpits and…
We are thrilled to introduce Yodassa Williams to the 2020 Debutante Ball! Yodassa’s debut novel The Goddess Twins will be published in May 2020. Yodassa is a writer and award winning performing storyteller, who crafts from intense life experiences and a wild imagination. An alumnae of VONA/Voice’s workshop and the Fortify Writer’s Retreat, she completed a residency with Yefe Nof and has performed at Lit Quake, Burning Man, and Moth…
I’m delighted to introduce the new social media maven for the Debutante Ball, Class of 2020! Please welcome and meet Kathleen West, whose debut novel Minor Dramas & Other Catastrophes will be out from Berkley (Penguin Random House) on February 4, 2020. Kathleen is a writer, teacher, reader, and semi-professional minivan driver. A life-long Minnesotan, she holds degrees from Macalester College and the University of Minnesota. She currently lives in Minneapolis…
This week, we’re speaking with Stephanie Elliot, the author of young adult novel SAD PERFECT (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). SAD PERFECT tells the story of sixteen year old Pea, who struggles with a little known eating disorder known as Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID). The novel was in part inspired by Elliot’s daughter’s real-life experience with the disorder. Called “a well-written page-turner whose sensitive topic is covered with finesse and grace”…
For this week’s post on literary influences, I’m republishing an essay I wrote about the intersection between song lyrics and poetry and how an unlikely rock band influenced a younger version of myself to think and read differently. The essay, On the Poetry of Isaac Brock, originally ran on Vol. 1 Brooklyn. When I was a freshman in high school, I had one of those rare things that stay with…
I get easily excited about ideas. If you sit me in front of a computer long enough, I will inevitably start writing. Drafting is the fun part. Drafting should be the stream of consciousness part, the unfiltered part, the part that is done out of joy. In drafting, there is no judgment, only indulgence. One is able to describe a house or a room or even a bowl of soup…
Today we welcome award-winning author Kathryn Mattingly. Her short fiction has received recognition for excellence in Writer’s Digest Award Winning Stories, Mind Trips Unlimited, Beacons of Tomorrow, and Internationally Yours: Prize Winning Stories. With her debut, BENJAMIN, she now adds novels to her literary resume. Benjamin is a literary suspense novel about a young boy born with an extraordinary healing gift and his mother, who must protect him from exploitation at…
