This blog is no longer maintained, but it contains posts dating back to when I was first trying to get published, so I'm keeping it here in the hopes that it might help other aspiring writers.
Books as Fingerprints
Jan 18, 2012
It used to be that hardcopy book people would get this insane fire in their eyes when someone would ask them about e-readers or e-books or the future of publishing. It’s that “I like the weight of them” look, the “it’s the way they smell” look, the “you can pry my hard copy books out of my cold dead hands” look. In just a few short years it seems that’s kind of calmed down a little bit. I know I have. I used to be adamant that I’d never own an e-reader, but now—especially that I do so much reading of books in digital manuscript form—I can see the appeal. And I’ll probably even get one, too.
But I’ll also never stop buying physical books. (Read more…)
The Doldrums
Jan 12, 2012
Writers like writing about how hard it is to write. As a newly full-time writer myself, I’m constantly astonished by how tough it is. On the one hand, not having to get up and get dressed and drive in the traffic and sit at a desk and listen to the office chatter and so forth is pretty awesome. Getting to play video games whenever is pretty awesome. Dictating my own schedule and getting to do my grocery shopping midday is pretty awesome.
But on the other hand: writing is pretty hard.
FAQ: How do you make yourself write so much and not get distracted?
Jan 01, 2012
This question comes most recently from a school visit, but I get variations on it a lot. (“Isn’t it hard to make yourself work when there’s no one to make sure you’re doing it?”) It seems like an appropriate post for New Year’s Day, when everybody’s busy making resolutions and promises to themselves!
BOOK DEAL NEWS!
Nov 30, 2011
Some of you who are readers of either my blog or Amie Kaufman’s blog may know that we’ve been working on a collaborative novel together. We’ve been writing together in one form or another ever since we met a bit over six years ago, so it seemed like no big thing to evolve from that to writing a novel together, but—at the risk of sounding totally lame—once we started working on WRECKED, we knew it was something pretty awesome.
We finally finished the first draft at the end of October, though “first draft” is a bit misleading—through our collaboration we’d done a ton of editing for each other, so it was a much tighter draft than that implies. We gave it to our amazing agents (we knew being in the same agency would come in handy!) and they raced through it and gave us a weekend to make a few changes before they sent it off to editors.
Thankful
Nov 23, 2011
Man, I have so much to be thankful for this year I don’t even know where to start. So much has happened since my post last Thanksgiving. I’ve signed with an agent, I’ve sold books, I’ve moved countries–and yet, I find that I’m most thankful for the people in my life, rather than the events. All the awesome things that have happened over the past year never would’ve happened without these wonderful people.
Revisions and Title Changes
Oct 16, 2011
Well, I’ve gone a really long time without updating you guys. Sorry! I’m a bad blogger! Part of that is that there hasn’t been much to say–there’s only so many times you can say “Working on revisions!” “Still revising, guys!” “Yep… still working on revisions…” But also with all of the revision, drafting, and critique work I’ve been doing over the past couple of months it’s hard to find the drive to add blogging to that. Especially over the past month or so I’ve been working like an absolute fiend. (Just finished work on something that I hope I’ll get to update you on soon!) At some point I’ll find a good balance, I hope, because I always forget when I’m NOT blogging that I actually quite enjoy it when I do.
That whole consistency thing…
Aug 13, 2011
So, I kinda fell off the face of the planet for a while there. I have excuses! The air conditioner broke, making it unbearable upstairs where I work, then my computer broke, then my cat broke (he got better though). Anyway, there are always going to be excuses not to blog. The point is, I fell off the wagon a bit there, but I’m back now! Yay! I did manage to cut my finger the other day enough that I can’t type very well, so it’s an odd moment to choose to return. I never claimed to make sense.
Wisdomous Wednesday: Pursue Your Weaknesses
Jul 21, 2011
Wisdomous Wednesday is a weekly series of posts with advice about writing ranging from craft to navigation through the publishing world. If you have some wisdomous thoughts you’d like to share here, don’t hesitate to contact me. I love advice from other writers!
Knowing your weaknesses as a writer is pretty important. But I think it’s just as important not to get caught up in what you know (or believe) to be your flaws. I think a lot of writers (and I am WAY guilty of this myself) tend to avoid writing things they’re not good at, or have no experience with. I know I catch myself taking convoluted paths through stories to avoid writing things I know I’m not good at writing–or worse, avoid writing stories I otherwise love because there’s an aspect to them that I don’t think I can handle.
Women’s World Cup Wednesday: What Does Soccer Have to Do With Writing?
Jul 13, 2011
In honor of the truly spectacular soccer game played Monday between Brazil and the U.S., today’s Wisdomous Wednesday is all about the World Cup—and how it relates to writing. (Trust me.) It was such an amazing game that one of the most common reactions I’ve heard has been “Someone has to be writing this book” or “You couldn’t write a better script than this.” So it really got me thinking about come-from-behind victories in literature, and how to make them believable—and most importantly, as fiercely satisfying as Monday’s victory for the USA.
And The Winner Is…
Jul 13, 2011
Thank you to everyone who joined in, celebrating my book bonanza and recommending so many awesome books! I have enough recommendations here to last SEVERAL birthdays, and I’m so psyched. I should get the first shipment (of several) this week, and I can’t wait!
And extra thanks to all of you who tweeted, blogged, etc. I wasn’t sure how this was gonna go, since I’d never done a contest, but it turned out to be a ton of fun, and there were a lot of entries, so yay!
