I’m editing my novel. Again. I don’t feel like telling you how many agains I have done in the course of turning out the best story I can deliver. But suffice it to say that when I received some wonderful feedback that convinced me I needed to go another round, I started off with determination! […]

I'm currently working on yet another edit of my young adult book that managed to eke out an RWA Golden Heart final in 2015. You'd think this baby would be in pretty good shape. When I entered my novel into that contest, it was hardly a first draft. More like Draft #72. I think I'm […]

Author W. Somerset Maugham famously said, "There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are." Maybe there aren't any rules per se, but there are suggestions given often enough that they almost seem like rules for writers. Yet three of those "rules" I regularly break. "Just vomit the words on […]

Last week, Fae Rowen discussed her reading habits in Beware: Voracious Reading Ahead. Like her, I remember reading way more than my friends and classmates when I was young, devouring every book that came my way. I started with the marvelous for Laura Ingalls Wilder and Nancy Drew. Then a very strange novel in 5th grade […]

I love the idea of a fresh start. There's something so appealing about a new beginning, an uncharted course, a do-over. It's why every year, I make New Year's resolutions and manage to keep many of them. But for the last few years, I've also followed along with the idea of choosing a single word to […]