originally published in Writer's Bone No one likes getting rejected. It hurts, it’s annoying, and it can really wreck a decent day. Writers get rejected a lot so if writing is your dream, realize that it’s inevitable. Here are some things to keep in mind to...
Originally published in Women Writers, Women's Books, March 28, 2015 We all know how much the world of publishing has changed in the last few years. The gatekeepers have been swept away by self-publishing. Anyone can write a book, and offer it for sale on Amazon....
This article originally appeared on February 7, 2015 in Women Writers, Women's Books. In writing, head hopping is defined as using an omniscient third-person narrator to hop from the head of one character right into another. This is thought to cause confusion for the reader and...
Sierra Court Blues by Lawrence Parlier is a stunning novel. We’re pulled in to a wild, chaotic world of young men and women, their music, their manias, their passion and their pain. The majority of the action takes place in a trailer owned by Jon,...
All writers have first loves, those authors who inspired us to pick up a pen and try our unpracticed hand at the art of poetry and prose. One of mine is William Faulkner, whose stunning The Sound and The Fury, made me want to write...
Here are some of the things I tell myself when I get the blues about my writing: You started this story because it was important for you to tell it. And you’re the only one who can tell it, so you better keep going. Think of your...
Yesterday I posted a request on Twitter. I asked followers to tell me, in fewer than fifty words, what writing meant to them. I was to choose the "best," and post it here, on my blog. This morning, I found four responses, all lovely, all heartfelt,...
This year is just about gone, and next year holds the usual mystery – what will happen? And when? 2014 is the year that I owned my crankiness about the publishing world. Despite the fact that I’ve been writing for almost thirty years, and publishing regularly...
When you start a career as a writer, you believe that there is an order to things. A ladder you will climb, passing rungs others have passed, slowly, with patience, until you reach the top. I’m happy to admit that my view of this ladder...
Virginia Wolff is famous for having said that to be a woman and a writer, one needed a room of one’s own and five hundred pounds a year. In essence, she was advocating for space and time. Of course she was correct. Of course these...
