I’ll never forget reading about how J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis sat around in a pub in England having heated discussions about the way books should be written. Oh how I wanted to be a fly on that wall! I can just imagine them, sitting in a dark corner, pints on the table in front…
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Yes, today is National Read a Book Day. The special day and extra spotlight is always welcome, but personally, I think reading a book should be celebrated every day. Books are amazing things and reading them has even more amazing benefits. (I’m biased, of course, seeing as I write books, but before I was a…
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Last week was one of wonder, sadness and inspiration. Four things happened that gave me a lot of perspective on life: How short it is, how incredible it is, how precious it is. First was the total solar eclipse. I’m a bit of a space geek, so when I heard the path of the total…
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Over on Twitter, I got into a conversation about how long publishing journeys can be. Sure there are those few overnight successes (a friend of mine signed with the first agent she did a conference critique with, it was with the first novel she’d written, and it sold very quickly), but those stories are far,…
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Yep, that’s right. My debut novel, WAKE, is getting into its final shape. It’s been handed off to the fantastic copy editors at Simon & Schuster, and I feel like I’ve sent out my story to get fixed up for the prom. I’ve worked on this story, loved it and lived within it, since I…
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I spotted this sunflower the other day when I was walking our dog, this single bloom growing out of a rock. Lots of parallels jumped into my head, of course, of blossoming despite adversity and beauty surviving even in the rockiest times (a la our current world order). But then one word rose out of…
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We have a really amazing kidlit community in Austin, and there’s no better example of that than today. This is the birthday of a picture book, middle grade and young adult book from Austin authors. And while the books are all great, the authors themselves are even more so. So I couldn’t be more excited…
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The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of ballrooms, panels and keynotes. I attended the Writers League of Texas 2017 Agents & Editors Conference in Austin on June 30 to July 2, then flew to Los Angeles for the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators 2017 Summer Conference on July 7-9. Now I’m filled…
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As everyone who saw the horrible news, I was devastated to see the fire of Grenfell Tower in London. So when I saw that a bunch of publishing professionals were getting together to raise funds for those affected, I jumped at the chance to participate. The Authors for Grenfell Tower Auction includes incredible prizes, from…
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