(A version of this post was originally published on Nov. 13, 2013 on the Late Last Night Books blog.) I write journals. Year after year, the stacks of filled notebooks on my closet shelf grow taller, leaning into each other until I’m forced to start another pile. This stash doesn’t even include my high school…
#Notwriting
I’m just back from a few weeks away from writing. I needed the break. There were so many household projects glaring at me that I felt guilty every time I did anything else. Besides that, my manuscript wasn’t gelling as it should, and I couldn’t figure out why. It was time for the sort of…
To Blurb or Not to Blurb
Do you buy books based on their covers? I’m not talking about the actual cover image, here. That’s a whole other blog post (ooh, look, I’ve already written that one!). I’m talking about blurbs. A blurb is a short, positive description of a book, written by other authors (because let’s face it, your mom is…
Island of Misfit Manuscripts
When I was very young, I looked forward to the Christmas special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Back then, I was most interested in Rudolph and Hermey the Elf, lovable characters rejected by the Establishment because they didn’t fit an expected mold. I’ve grown up. The part of the show that sticks with me the most these…
Ooops!
Back in fourth grade, I was fascinated by the 19th century westward expansion of the United States. The stories I wrote reflected that. Research? Nah. I just wrote. This probably explains how I found myself writing a scene set in a one-room prairie schoolhouse where a bunch of students expressed their boredom by throwing paper…
Why Newport, anyway?
I grew up in Annapolis, MD. Maybe that statement feels like a non sequitur following the title of this post, but bear with me. When I began thinking about the novel that would become NEWPORT, location images floated across my mind. They looked like Annapolis. There was a picturesque historic district dotted with homes and buildings…
…wield it wisely
You’ve just finished reading a novel. (For the sake of random and totally unbiased argument, let’s say it’s mine.) You love, love, love it; can’t imagine how anyone on earth could love, love, love it; think the author needs serious help. You want to review this book online because everyone should read it – it’s…
Muses
Let’s talk about muses and inspiration, because I am a total believer. I’m not talking about the classical Greek muses. There were nine of them, plenty to go around. Daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, they were raised by the god Apollo and the nymph Eufime. They grew up to become the sources of inspiration for…
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