Query letters, agent rejections, self-publishing, oh my! Here's my honest, candid take on what it's really like trying to get a novel published...hopefully with a few laughs along the way.
Category: Writing
Interview with Sarah Buchanan, Author of “That Book I Wrote about Me”
After three ex-husbands, two successful novels, and one disastrous book she’d rather forget ever having written, Fiona Fields has hit a wall. Days once filled with critics gushing over her latest masterpiece have given way to endless hours spent lying on her living room floor in Lakeview Valley, the tiny North Carolina mountain town of …
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Turning Interviews into Kids’ Books with Erica Swallow
This month in the Inspiration and Perspiration series, I tracked down Erica Swallow, co-creator of a non-fiction picture book stemming from Erica's real-life interview with kid entrepreneurs. I met Erica at the San Francisco Writer's Conference, where, in our first chat, she asked, "Is there anything I can do to help you with your project?" I was later …
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Online Resource Guide for Aspiring Authors
This past week I spent four amazing days at the San Francisco Writers Conference. Everywhere, groups tucked into corners between panels to help each other get ready for the great and scary pitch sessions. Someone mentioned feeling intimidated to come to their first conference, ready for battle in the Hunger Games of aspiring authors. Instead, they found themselves wrapped …
Why I Write for Kids and Teens
Sometimes, when I tell people that I write for kids and teens, they respond with something along the lines of, "Oh that sounds fun! Do you think one day you'll be good enough/serious enough to write for adults?" I then launch in to all the reasons I love writing for young people. The challenge of …
Where do ideas come from?
“Where do you get your ideas?” I’ve noticed that fiction writers tend to answer this question in a tone I’ll call…cutsey sarcastic. “A unicorn brings them to me every full moon.” Cool, cool. The wisdoms of the masters—always super helpful… Don’t get me wrong, I get it. It’s a weird question for fiction writers to …
NaNoWriMo: Your 50,000-Word Writing Challenge
Guest Post by ERICA ROOT Writing a book is an overwhelming endeavor. Writing your FIRST novel, even more so. So what’s an aspiring author to do? What’s the best way to overcome that insurmountable hurdle? My answer: Sign up for NaNoWriMo.
“If you are a dreamer, come in…” -Shel Silverstein
I am a risk-taker. In college, when there wasn’t a book club on campus, I signed the papers to create one. When I couldn’t afford to join an amazing-looking writers retreat, I gathered together a group of local creatives and planned one from scratch. In my job as an academic advisor, when a panel of …
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