Pre-Happy New Year! Just like most people, I’ve been kinda crazy over Christmas and haven’t gotten on here to post. I’m also way behind in my blog reading. But there’s one thing I have been doing: editing! I’ve been working a lot on my revision, and although I’m no way near making my end-of-year finish…
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Revision update: Got a bunch of good work in yesterday. Nothing yet today, but I plan to get to work after this post. I found a great post on Larry Brooks’ Storyfix.com today, Get Published, Part 6–Avoid the Common Pitfalls. Brooks offers up six problems that get a manuscript a quick rejection, but the best…
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Revision update: I’ve been sick all week, so nothing done. Very frustrating. This is my first writing for the week, thanks to a fast-acting yucky cold. I did a little revising last night as I couldn’t sleep — a byproduct of sleeping most of the day for the last three days — but other than…
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Revision update: I can always tell the parts of my first draft where I was struggling. This morning, I found one of those parts at the beginning of this next chapter I’m working on, and I found a much better way to get into the story. One of the many — far too many —…
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Sad news today. Kirkus Reviews is closing up shop. Parent Nielsen is closing the trade magazine, which has become an institution in publishing, as well as Editor & Publisher. For all aspiring authors who have for years read about debuting books and their Kirkus reviews, they won’t have the opportunity to get a Kirkus review…
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Revision update: Two chapters done yesterday. None today. Work too hectic. A lot of print-on-demand options have popped up over the last few years, making self-publishing more of an option for writers. I recently tried one, Blurb.com, not for self-publishing, but for my mother’s 60th birthday gift. Mum wrote a bunch of poems a few…
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Revision update: Got through two chapters yesterday and one and a half today. I’m really hoping to get the whole book done by the end of the year, but … hmmm, not sure. We’ll see. My husband said he’d read the book this weekend, which hopefully will give me a boost in my revision. He’ll…
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Day By Day Writer is thrilled to have debut author Fiona Ingram on the blog today. Fiona’s book The Secret of the Sacred Scarab tells the story of two boys who, during a trip to Egypt, stumble upon a 5,000-year-old mystery. The middle-grade novel was a finalist in the 2009 USA Next Generation Indie Book…
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Literary agent Donald Maass has a great post about the bigness of a novel on the Writer Unboxed blog. We’re all trying to write novels that resonate — that feel big to the reader — and Donald guides us what our books should have to create that bigness. As you might expect, it’s a lot…
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Revision update: Still nothing done. Sigh! I know I’m a big kid, but I love pop-up books. I have loved them since I was a kid and they still make me giggle with delight whenever I open them. So I was thrilled to see an older video pop up (pardon the pun) on the Wall…
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