Revision update: I buckled down yesterday and jumped in. More today. I’m a computer hound. I have a laptop, and it’s like my good and trusty friend. It’s always with me. If I go on a trip, the computer is packed. When I went to the Austin SCBWI conference a few weeks ago, I stayed…
Read more
Manuscript update: I didn’t get too much done in my revision yesterday. Still on chapter one today. A reader left a comment on yesterday’s post about being stuck during a revision. I’ve been there — I’m sure we all have — and it can be so frustrating. You want to write, you want to fix…
Read more
Manuscript update: Today I’m starting my next revision of my current novel, and I’m excited and nervous. It has been three weeks since I’ve written, and the longer it gets, the more antsy I get. It’s funny, but when I’m writing, everything else in my life goes so much more smoothly. I don’t know if…
Read more
My husband and I braved the crowds and caught the movie adaptation of Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief last night, and I’ve got some words of advice for writer Craig Titley and director Chris Columbus: Look over Angela Ackerman‘s seven deadly sins of novel writing; they’re important for screenplays too. Now, I’m…
Read more
Angela Ackerman (a.k.a. The Bookshelf Muse) has finished her collection of posts about her seven deadly sins of novel writing, and they’re good to read for writers at all stages of a manuscript. On Monday, I’ll be beginning what I think — hope — will be my last revision of my current novel, and as…
Read more
Today, I’m pleased to host Laura Cross, author of many ghostwritten books as well as her new Complete Guide to Hiring a Literary Agent: Everything You Need to Know to Become Successfully Published. In January, you posted great questions about ghostwriting (Thanks everyone!), and Laura has some eye-opening answers. Before we get to them, though,…
Read more
Entering your work in contests is a great way to get noticed, not to mention all the cool prizes. There are plenty of bigger contests out there, but many blogs are offering smaller contests for free with a critique from an agent as the prize — always invaluable. Andrea Brown Literary Agency‘s Mary Kole has…
Read more
If there was a theme in what the many published writers said at the Austin SCBWI conference a couple weeks ago, it was that perseverance is an important part of their success. Three of this year’s ALA winners were there — Jacqueline Kelly (The Evolution of Capurnia Tate), Marla Frazee and Liz Garton Scanlon (All…
Read more
Today is my last post from the Austin SCBWI conference. It’s my seventh post about the conference and I’ve just given you a sampler from the presentations, so it shows how great these conferences can be. Before I get into the post for today, here’s a quick recap of the other posts from the conference…
Read more
Sorry if you came here on Saturday looking for this post. I had a busy weekend and didn’t get to my computer much. But here is day six of my reports from the Austin SCBWI conference. First, a quick recap of my other reports: agent Mark McVeigh on publishing, agent Andrea Cascardi on getting and…
Read more
