My second manuscript in my Wild Crime series was submitted to my publisher and I waited, and waited, and waited. In reality, the reply came very quickly in the publishing world. Six weeks after submission, the reply came, although it wasn’t the answer I’d hoped to receive. It was an offer for me to “revise […]
Is submitting easier the second time around? Part 1
I started the second book in my Wild Crime series soon after the first, Crime and Paradise, was completed. There was a brief interim period when I pored through a number of writing books, and refreshed my mind on structure, plot, suspense and various theories on how to create a first draft. For my second […]
Shut Up & Write
The main thing writers do is not write. We think and talk about the books we plan to write, go to classes about writing, and we read other people’s books on the craft of writing. But when it comes time to actually write, there are a million distractions in life that prevent us from getting […]
Where I write
I write on my feet, walking my neighborhood, around the mall, along the river, taking a shower. My characters are always there, milling around inside my brain, clamoring for life, more life. It’s where the murders happen, the gentle love story between my main character and the county sheriff evolves, and the plot comes together. […]
Editing fear and fun 101
It’s okay to be edited. Really. That’s the subject of my guest blog for Shut Up & Write, an international organization of more than 16,000 members. I’ll share more about Shut Up & Write in a future post. Right now, the topic is being edited, a subject that brings fear into the heart of all […]
Three little words
Even after a career being a journalist and editor, even after starting a statewide business magazine, and writing nearly every day of my life…it was hard for me to start referring to myself as a “writer.” To me, there’s something magical about those words. My childhood was spent immersed in books. I was that kid, […]