Aimie K. Runyan Ah, summer. The season of calorie-dense cookouts, crowded swimming pools, board shorts in obnoxiously loud prints and mismatched flip-flops. Despite the need to coat myself in SPF 200 every fifteen minutes I love summer. Love it. My writing career, less so. I am very, very fortunate that I get to stay at […]

Sarah Cy According to the old adage, "practice makes perfect." For a writer, reading and writing is practice. So the more you do it, the better a writer you should be, right? In reality, reading and writing every day does not a great writer make. Not if "reading and writing every day" means browsing news […]

  I chose this entry to crit this month because, at its core, it sounds like an interesting story, and it could be a compelling beginning. But it's buried in adjectives, adverbs and asides. I can tell this author slaved over this. But believe it or not, we can try too hard.  Black = original Red = […]

Over the last few months, I've shared "Top 10" lists from J.K. Rowling and Stephen King on the topics of writing and success. This month I chose Neil Gaiman, because he has so much compassion and practical wisdom to share about writing. The amazing thing to me in compiling these lists is that all three writers offer […]

June Stevens Westerfield I had hoped to avoid the particular topic I’m about to broach completely; however, as I always talk to you guys about branding, I would be remiss if I ignored the current publishing climate and didn’t take the time to discuss book branding as it relates to your cover and title. As […]