What's it like to have your manuscript on submission to publishers? How do you make it through the process? This is the third time I've been "on sub." No Small Thing is circulating to a select group of editors, thanks to the pitch work of Tara Gelsomino, my agent. I'm sharing … [Read more...] about What It’s Like to Be On Sub
Seven Ways to Wrangle Your Back Story
If you're like me, you just lo-o-o-ve telling the tale before the story begins. That's because you care so much about your characters and you can envision where they were when they were three, and you know the whole cast of characters surrounding them at key moments in their … [Read more...] about Seven Ways to Wrangle Your Back Story
Six Tips for Chapter One Success
How do you make sure people—readers, agents, editors—keep reading Chapter One of your Great American Novel? How do we get them to Chapter Two? After publishing three works of fiction and after writing (and discarding) several novels, I've figured out how to crack the code of … [Read more...] about Six Tips for Chapter One Success
Four Ways to Feed Off Feedback
If you're like me, sometimes it's tough to process feedback on your writing in an effective way. Doesn't matter whether it's your writers' group, beta readers, reviewers, your agent, your editor—none of us humans are wired to welcome criticism. I talk through my formula for … [Read more...] about Four Ways to Feed Off Feedback
Author Head Shots: Why You Need My Friend Teresa
Teresa Porter of My Friend Teresa Studios made it all perfect. Author head shots went swimmingly, despite me and all my neuroses. [Here's me talking myself off a ledge in a post.] Teresa got me laughing. That's what great photographers do. They relax your humming brain, they … [Read more...] about Author Head Shots: Why You Need My Friend Teresa
Four Ways to Fight Imposter Syndrome: How Authors Just Need to Chill
I decided to hold forth in a video in the very real fear us authors feel about imposter syndrome. I just finished the latest revision of my young adult novel, No Small Thing, and I’ve been thinking about how I handle the imposter syndrome. So many of us face the feeling that … [Read more...] about Four Ways to Fight Imposter Syndrome: How Authors Just Need to Chill