Creatively, there’s not much that’s more daunting than a totally blank page waiting for you to spin it into either gold… or crap. Those are of course the only options — each blank page will either catapult your career to that coveted next level, or reveal you for the fraud you truly are. Know what helps me? Writing freelance, and having all kinds of deadlines. Since I still have all…
My next-door neighbor… is horrific. By this I of course mean that he is a horror movie icon, one of those super evil villains that makes teen girls scream and grip bruises into their boyfriends’ arms. He’s the kind of guy who gets mobbed at Fangoria conventions, and has spooky action figures made of him. In the interest of privacy, I won’t say who he is, but trust me, he’s…
I hate the phone. It runs in my family. I am genetically predisposed to distrust all forms of instant communication. And yet for a writer on submission, the phone takes on a level of importance only slightly above oxygen. Every time I was at my lowest point on my road to publication, by some bizarre cosmic coincidence, that phone rang. Posting each instance of this would take an entire page,…
In some ways, my agoraphobic Town House protagonist, Jack Madigan, and I could not be more different. He’s the son of a rock star and a groupie. I’m the daughter of a medical laboratory owner and an artist. He’s passive aggressive with his therapist. I couldn’t appreciate mine more. He lives in my favorite neighborhood on earth – Beacon Hill in Boston – in a four-storey century town home with…
Things I’ve learned about the publishing industry thus far: • Publishing is not for sissies – If you want to publish, you actually have to send things in, even though this means risking rejection • There will be rejection, count on it – If you ask five people their opinion, you will get five different opinions
