by Lorraine Walker I have found the advice of established authors to be invaluable on my writing journey. To all of you who are inundated with deadlines, revisions, research, and marketing, please know that your writing tips, blog posts, and info on your websites are golden nuggets to others. You have lived the writer’s life and your expertise helps those …
Make a Difference with the Doing
By Davalynn Spencer This winter as I highlighted passages in a writer’s magazine, dog-eared favorite pages in a how-to book on fiction, and sucked the life-blood of encouragement from the tale of a successful writer’s personal journey, I recognized a note of familiarity. I’d read it all before. Was there nothing new under the publishing sun? Since embracing professional development …
How to Eat a Book Review
by Crystal Laine Miller The title is a rip-off from a poem I vaguely remember from grade school by Eve Merriam called “How to Eat a Poem.” It starts off like this: “Don’t be polite. Bite in. Pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice that may run down your chin. …” Eve alluded that reading a poem …
Happy Memories…Happy Writing
by Cathy Liggett This morning when I received a reminder about my scheduled date to blog, I initially thought about asking to postpone. My 90-year-old dad passed away last week and my mind has been as unfocused as a garden hose gone haywire, spraying out in all directions. But then I started thinking (and please forgive me ahead of time …
Dressing the Dog
by Ane Mulligan Who started this fashion trend? I can remember dressing the cat when I was a little girl. I still have the scars to show for it. But a dog dressed not for play but for real? I was watching House Hunters on HGTV the other night and this woman had her dog dressed in a different outfit …
Research Can Be Fun
by Lena Nelson Dooley Does researching a subject sound boring to you? I used to feel that way, too. Now research is a mainstay of my writing, whether I’m writing a contemporary or a historical novel. When I started writing Maggie’s Journey, book one of my McKenna’s Daughters series, I had a hard time picturing Seattle in 1885. That hindered …
Formatting a Manuscript
by Jill Williamson When I started writing, I didn’t know anything about how to properly format a manuscript. I gathered this information over the years from books and lectures and online and eventually figured it all out. But I’m a visual learner, and I had always wished that someone could have simply shown me how to do these things. A …
Working (And Laughing) With a Critique Partner
By Victoria Bylin This past year, I decided to stretch my wings. In addition to writing the proverbial “book of my heart” aka BOMH, I started working with a critique partner. I’ve written fourteen books for Harlequin Historical and Love Inspired Historical, but I’ve always worked alone. I thought I was an experienced writer. I thought I knew how to …
Writer Interrupted
By Deborah K. Anderson Have you ever felt as though someone, or something, tries to stop you from writing? You know, an evil force on a perverse mission hinders you from finishing an article, a short story, or perhaps even that next novel? It may sound crazy, but I’ve encountered this more times than I can count. Several years ago, …
A Thousand Words a Day?
by Donna L. Rich “But, let’s just stop and ask for directions,” I plead. “I don’t need directions.” “Honey, come on, I feel like Moses’ wife, here. We’ve been wandering for an hour now, and I want to get out in that sun. There’s a gas station on the corner. Let’s stop, please.” “I don’t need directions. I feel like …