Everyday Storytelling
The mind is a funny thing. More funny, strange than funny, ha ha. Although, it can make you laugh (hopefully at yourself). And it can trick you. Oh, man, can it trick you. But guess what? You can trick it right... Read More...
Go Set a Watchman: Listening to the Hard Truth
Clichés may be the bane of good writing, but sometimes there’s no easier way to say I wish I had more time to read, than, well, I wish I had more time to read. I don’t even wonder where the time went, because I... Read More...
Is There Gender Bias in Publishing? A Female Writer’s Pseudonym Experiment
Catherine Nichols wrote an interesting article about querying her novel first under her own name, and then under a man’s name, as a kind of scientific experiment. The results were depressing: the "male" writer ... Read More...
Write a Book Already!
I wanted to be a writer when I was a little girl – also an astronaut, an archeologist, and a doctor. I almost got there with the doctor thing, but medical school with small children was, for me, an impossible b... Read More...
Need an Antidote to the Summer Doldrums? Your Favorite Books Go to the Movies!
It’s that time of year. In the literary calendar, the month of August is that blasé space between all of the book hoopla of June and July’s great “beach reads” and the much-anticipated literary debuts of autumn... Read More...
Beta Readers Mull It Over
Beta readers are a blessing to all writers. My beta readers helped me see things I never would have from my myopic standpoint. How many times can I reread my work before it transforms into a continuous blur of ... Read More...
That Reminds Me of Something
Like a lot of book nerds, I belong to a book club. We meet once a month and discuss a book chosen by the person hosting the meeting. That’s actually my favorite part. We have to read books that someone else pic... Read More...
Coming to Terms with the Truth About Atticus Finch
The hottest news in the literary world is the July 14 release of Harper Lee’s book Go Set a Watchman. As someone who devoured To Kill a Mockingbird in eighth grade and reread it several times since then, I was ... Read More...
Check “Book Clutter” Off Your To Do List
Checklist: "a type of informational job aid used to reduce failure by compensating for potential limits of human memory and attention. It helps to ensure consistency and completeness in carrying out a task. A b... Read More...
When Good Books Make Bad Mistakes
First, let me say as a disclaimer that Donna Tartt is one of my favorite authors. I’ve only read two of her books—but then, she’s only written three. She writes a book about every ten years. Considering I’m jus... Read More...