I knew launch week was going to be great, but I didn’t realize just how fabulous and heady and exhausting and thrilling and joyous it would be. My god. Having my fellow debs along for the ride has been so great. We are a super team of cheerleaders for each other, and I’m so appreciative. Between a Facebook online party and Twitter shout-outs, between guest blog posts and an Authors on the…
I didn’t put my name in the title, but I’m sure you have no doubt who’s writing here. The year has come full circle, and although I could fill volumes with my thoughts about the process … what I’ve learned, the friends I’ve made, and how much I’ve loved this year at the debutante ball, I think it far more fitting to end my posts the way they started. Besides,…
So far this week, my Debutante Sisters have talked about how the writing journey is solitary, constantly changing, complicated, and a thing to be savored. Now for something completely different. In many ways, the debut author’s journey has much in common with Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. The hapless author gets into her craft (in our case, a manuscript rather than a rocket), gets launched on her way,…
… but she’d like to. About a week before my book release, I received an amazing email. A reader who received an ARC through Goodreads went to the trouble of locating my website and emailing me to tell me how much she enjoyed the book. Not just that … she thanked me for writing it. Talk about blown away. It meant the world to me that someone actually took the…
As I mentioned in a comment on Deb Kerry’s fantastic Monday post, I have trouble with endings, written or otherwise. When I come to the end of a novel, or anything else, I have trouble explaining things in simple ways. It’s a lifelong problem, and one I never considered all that much until this topic came around. I’d previously dismissed my trouble with endings as “overattachment” or “trouble tying up…
There’s a famous piece of writerly advice floating around the internet, which says, more or less: “Get your characters up a tree and throw rocks at them.” I can’t remember where it originated, although I think it might have been Stephen King. Wherever it came from, this bit of advice is all well and good for characters in a book, but what about those times when you start to feel…
Today, friends, I have the honor of introducing our VERY LAST DEB LAUNCH. Yes, that’s right: Deb Susan’s engrossing debut, CLAWS OF THE CAT, comes out today, and it is the perfect (or should I say purrrfect) summer read! For a lot of people, summer means travel and vacations, but if you’re me, and you have a four-month-old munchkin demanding your constant attention, exciting vacations aren’t exactly in the cards….
April in Sacramento heralds the end of a cold, rainy winter. I clear away weeds, mow the lawn, and get ready for hot,sweaty summer days. In April, I also get to enjoy the first rosebuds of the season – which makes me happy every year, because I love roses and also because these roses mean something special. I transplanted them from my father’s garden. At one point, my father had…
Most of you know I have a marine aquarium focused on seahorses. (OK, technically all of you know it now.) Far fewer of you probably know that seahorses have rituals too. The most visible, and most dramatic, centers on courtship. Most seahorses mate for life (though some, like my female Ceti, decide to somewhat literally change horses in midstream). The courtship and mating process involves tail-holding, mid-water “dancing” and…
When your novel features a ninja assassin as its protagonist, you have to think long and hard about what makes a villain. Ultimately, villainy is usually a matter of perspective. Real villains aren’t the mustache-twirling cardboard cutouts of Saturday-morning cartoon fame. Snidely Whiplash is funny, but not really frightening. Horror villains, like Nightmare on Elm Street’s infamous Freddy Krueger, are scary for a moment but not in a way that…
