Tweet I follow her on social media and she’s someone who constantly inspires and impresses me with her publishing success. When she reached out about her upcoming nonfiction book, I was eager to feature her on Author Q&A. She happily agreed. I think you’ll enjoy our conversation. It’s real insight into what it’s like to be an author of both fiction and nonfiction. You’re no stranger to authoring a book. You have two successful novels out, All Different Kinds of Free and 2018 Arizona Book of the Year Peculiar Savage Beauty. But this March you’re coming out with a nonfiction…
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Tweet Do you know the mirage? The place that looks like a gorgeous lake, but is really a glorified puddle? This is everything we post on social media-the fancy writer gig, our new book, and all the writer activities we’re apart of. It’s all nice and sparkling. Everyone watching wants to jump right in. The problem with mirages is that they’re not real. Perhaps, all of that is true. But it puts observers on the outside, it separates us, and makes us feel alone. If you pan out from the image, you’d see that we’re all watching the mirage-that vast…
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Tweet Full disclosure here. A professor once told me I’d be a professional student and I didn’t prove him wrong. I still take oodles of writing courses from the comfort of my home. And one thing I’ve been hearing a ton from literary agents are all the true and shocking stories of writers who write obnoxious things in response to their rejection letters. Please if you’re a reader here, new or old, do not end of being one of those writers. I know I’m guilty of hitting the reply button too soon, but accusing agents of not reading my work…
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Tweet Just this Thanksgiving, I sent out a silent prayer of thanks for an inbox void of rejection letters. Guess what I received a few hours later? Thank you agent for taking time from your busy holiday schedule to decline my manuscript! In my writer’s critique group, I am the only one who has sent over a 100 submissions with not one acceptance letter. Yet, I continue to work on my craft every single day. Am I crazy? I just have faith that with time and hard work, I’ll eventually get there. But even I lose hope every once in…
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Tweet I haven’t done this in awhile so a lot of what’s here is entirely new. If you have a friend or family member who is a writer (Psssttt…these are all great gifts for yourself), they may appreciate one of these writerly Christmas gifts this year. For writers who write for children: SCBWI membership is not cheap. It’ll cost you about $95 or $65 for students. But the Society of Children Book Writers & Illustrators offers great workshops, information and other resources for writers who are serious about writing for children. For all writers at any stage: Writer Digest or The…
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Tweet It’s a story I seldom tell, but needs to be told… I got a degree in English, but never believed I could actually make a profession out of it so I squandered those early years taking whatever job looked intriguing and didn’t require experience. Every afternoon, I’d pull out the jobs section of the newspaper and became everything from an usher to a research assistant and even a private investigator. Looking back, there were oodles of gems to pull from. All those late nights with my homemade burrito wrapped in foil surveying the area for criminal activity or working…
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Tweet Hi there. It’s been months. I’m not sure if anyone is still reading this, but if you are, welcome. I got my graduate degree in counseling psychology years ago. But for the last decade, I’ve been working as a writer. The more I wrote, the more writing seemed to circle back to the same themes of health, wellness and spirituality. My tagline once was I used to be a therapist now I counsel others on the written word. That’s what I want to do here. Offer advice for writers looking for help dealing with all the negative emotions that…
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Tweet I haven’t blogged here in awhile. Mostly because I’ve been working on my crazy ambitious goal of publishing essays, picture books, a middle grade novel and adult novel (saved for someday). So far, I haven’t been that successful. But I thought I’d document my process here. What I have been successful at is learning about the process. For example, part of my work includes reading books like The Creative Curve: How to Develop the Right Idea at the Right Time by Allen Gannett. While reading it, I recognized a few surprising truths that make picture books successful and can help…
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Tweet I had the honor of attending the Wanderlust Festival on Oahu this week. It’s only my second time in the five years that we’ve been living here. Having gone again made me wonder why I don’t make it out there every year, and then I remember the price and how far the drive is. But this one was definitely worth it. While Wanderlust is primarily a yoga festival and I was in my yoga pants, I did not do a stitch of exercise. The most I did was walk near the ocean during our lunch break. But what I…
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Tweet Guest post by: Tara Mandarano I’m staring at the stain-glass tower on the church outside my bedroom window when my five-year-old daughter bursts in. It’s after school, post after care, and I am exactly where she so often finds me: lying in bed, curled up with pillows, painkillers and my rose-gold computer, writing. She is my muse and my teacher, challenging and charming at the same time, and I have been chronicling our lives together for over three years now. It’s not easy putting your private life out there for public consumption, but there is no better way for…