By Chuck Sambuchino How does a literary agent define their “ideal client”? The question is extremely important because it’s one that factors into an agent’s mindset before and after they sign you. If an agent has read your complete novel or book proposal and wants to sign you, the next step is almost always to […]

By Shannon Donnelly Great dialogue can make or break a novel. This view may stem from growing up watching a lot of 1930’s screwball comedies. Zingers fly with rapid fire and everyone talks. A lot. But the importance of dialogue really sank in when I wrote A Proper Mistress. I went for a lot of dialogue […]

by James Preston The general who wins the battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought. The general who loses makes but few calculations beforehand. -- Sun Tzu First, thanks for having me back.  I really enjoy these opportunities to talk about our work. About this entry -- If you have […]

by Kathryn Craft Turning Whine into Gold Everything’s changing. Yep—that’s a whine all right, and a truth, and the summary of this entire post. Change is as constant in publishing as any other industry impacted by computerization in the past twenty years. But change can be especially hard to grapple with for writers. Here’s why, […]

by Jenny Hansen "There isn’t any secret. You sit down and you start and that’s it." ~ Elmore Leonard Last month, I took a course with Margie Lawson called Defeating Self-Defeating Behaviors, which I would recommend to anyone. Margie might have geared the course toward writers, but I've already talked a painting/designer friend and my […]