Do you have an appointment to see the writer?

Lately, the wonderful and funny writer Eileen Cook and I have been commiserating about the fact that while we have the best job in the world, we also don’t have enough to do writing-wise and it makes us blue at times. I know I had the misconception that once...

Writing 101 – Beg. Mid. End.

I am starting to worry about a disturbing book trend. Okay, maybe not a trend, but this is the second ARC I’ve read in the last month where the book doesn’t actually have an ending. Yes, these are both the first books in a series, but the beauty of a good...

The Prince and the Pilgrim by Mary Stewart

Funny…I just looked at the book cover to get the title because I had no idea what it was! I picked this book up for one reason only. Dame Mary Stewart wrote it. It’s set during Arthurian times and based on a legend (which I didn’t know until the end...

Life Advice – Follow Up

I bet y’all thought I forgot about this. It’s been sometime since I asked for your help thinking of some sort of school/activity/career for my main character, Jamie, in my current WIP. I didn’t forget…I was just editing Restoring Harmony....

Talk to me!

Some of the best advice I’ve seen on keeping a blog is, “Make it easy for people to comment.” It sounds simple, but it appears to me that bloggers are so worried about dreaded spam that they want me to jump through hoops just to comment. I...

The Cover Artist

A lot of you have emailed and asked me who did the cover for my book. Until now, I didn’t know, but I am happy to say that my editor has passed on that info. The artist’s name is Hugh Syme and he has some wonderful work up online for your viewing pleasure...

Going, going, gone!

POW! Going, going, gone! That is the sound of my edits going off into cyberspace and landing in my editor’s inbox. Ahhhhhhh…..life is good! I am basically way too fried to tell y’all all the stuff I want to, all the wonderful things I learned about...

My Summer Office

Not only do I not have to get dressed, but apparently, I don’t even have to comb my hair! If you’ve emailed me and I haven’t responded, it’s because I have been editing. I will surface eventually and LOVE to hear all your nice comments about my...

They’ve Got Me Covered!!!

I am thrilled to share with you the cover* of my very first novel, Restoring Harmony! I am so excited because I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this cover! It says everything I could want the cover to say. Click on it to see it bigger. *Still slightly in progress as some enhancement...

Exciting News!

Guess what? Just found out that Restoring Harmony is going to be a Summer 2010 release! So excited, as I thought it wasn’t coming out until the fall. Also, any time now, I should get a sneak peek at the cover! It may be a while before I have anything I can post,...

Editing Advice

I am on a very, very tight deadline, which of course explains why I’m procrastinating here on my blog. As I do this edit, I think I will add to this post all the things I’m learning. Free advice for you! What I have learned so far: 1. If your editor...

Life Advice – I need your help!

I know…I know…I have not been a good blogger. I have not updated Need To Read much because I’ve read a bunch of stuff that I either wasn’t that enthusiastic about or was adult fiction that I didn’t really feel like blogging about. I have...

Good advice is worth its weight in gold!

After I signed with my brilliant agent, I sent him a long letter (yeah, it could probably have been cut by 30%) telling him all the things I would do as a writer to make his job easier and to help sell books – like publicity stuff, and meeting deadlines, and...

Thank Goodness I Learned to Type

When I started college, I was a theatre major. My grandmother kept telling me to take classes like accounting and typing (yes, this was way back when everyone used typewriters and computers were still in the future). I was not about to take anything so that I could...

Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway

I know I haven’t posted here much, but I’ve been reading some adult fiction and also the couple of YAs I’ve tried just did not work for me. However, I am HAPPY to say that Audrey, Wait! is fantastic. I first heard about it on Meg Cabot’s blog,...

In Memory of Grinder

This picture was taken this morning. I was laying in the sunshine on the porch and my cat Grinder came out and climbed up onto my chest and licked my face. After a while, he crawled under this coffee table so that he could get into the box. He had never met a box he...

New author photo?

Probably not, but over at my husband’s photo blog, there’s a great story to go with this picture/quilt. You can see it bigger there, too.

Writing in a vacuum

People say that writing is solitary. For the most part I agree, but I have had a bit of a change of heart lately. For years I wrote alone, only having one or two people read my stuff when I thought it was finished. I learned a lot, but it seemed like I did a lot of...

Randomness

This picture is the one that I said looks like my superhero character Enviro Avenger. The photographer noticed that people were clicking over from my site to hers and emailed and offered to let me put it up here! Cool, eh? You may have noticed that not only have I not...

Links you might like

Every once in a while there are just so many cool things that I think y’all would like to see, but might miss. So here are a few links for you. First, I would be remiss not to mention my first interview (again), right? Do stop by because I’m so much more...

Avoiding the Character Cliche

This was originally published in the SCBWI bulletin in 2009. I wanted to cut and paste their formatted version, but their new site kept crashing my computer. Hopefully, it will get fixed because it looks really cool over there now! Avoiding the Character Cliché By...

Enviro Avenger! That’s me!

Guess what? I just did my very first author interview! Stop on over at Steph Bowe’s blog and be impressed. No, not with me! With Steph. She’s a fifteen year old YA writer and book reviewer and she’s got a fantastic blog going over there, so...

Spring Fling Blog Tour Prize Guidelines!

I’m hoping you all will celebrate the release of my debut YA novel, Restoring Harmony with me and to show you how thankful I am for your support, I’m going to make it fun! There will be several contests and giveaways. And here are a few rules guidelines...