My friend Janette Rallison discovered by accident that mentioning Orlando Bloom on her blog spiked the number of hits she got to all time highs. Now I would never mention Orlando Bloom just to raise my hits. I wouldn't mention Orlando Bloom two or three times or put...

Last night, author (and YA NBA winner) Sherman Alexie was on the Colbert Report. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. I highly recommend you take a few minutes and watch it. He is in segment 3 if you don't have time (or the inclination) to watch the whole show.

I have made a few corrections to this post after vetting it by someone at Tourette Syndrome Foundation Canada. First off, I wasn't supposed to use the logo (!), so I've changed it to a grumpy dog which is how I feel about this topic! Thank you to Kadija, for helping...

The good news is I finished reading my WIP and it's pretty strong. The bad news is I thought I was about 96% done and I'm actually only about 86% there. The good news is I know how to fix it. The bad news is my thoughts are pretty circular right now, which means I...

If you've always wondered how to promote your book when you land a TV interview, I suggest you jump on over toThe Daily Show and watch Segment 2 of the October 21st show. The whole show is pretty hilarious, but segment two is just a goldmine of info for writers!

The plaque says, "and they lived happily ever after" Whenever I finish up a novel, either a new one or a revision of one, I always seem to rush the ending. Then later, I have to go back and make it bigger, broader, fuller, and more satisfying. So today I neared the...

If you skip down a post or two, you'll see the bit in my "predictions" (or wishes) for the NBA finalists where I said that because I don't have a book buying budget, I use the library and so I'm mostly reading 2007's books instead of 2008 because the library hasn't...

So my friend, Alix at Marmite and Tea asked someone to send her a meme. I've always wanted to try my hand writing one, so I made one up just for her. She posted it yesterday. I thought it was such fun, that I'd just do it myself over here. Feel free to pass it around...

I was never very good at keeping a journal. I have a few from high school and when I went to Europe after college. They're pretty lame accounts of boys I was in love with who didn't love me (and even a few who did). Boring! I'll certainly never turn to them for plots,...

Tomorrow they announce this year's finalists for the National Book Award. I looked through all my book cards for the year to see if I've read any YA that I think might be a finalist (or should be in my opinion!) and discovered I haven't read a lot of books published...

We eat all the side dishes, of course! Around 2pm, I realized I was going to meet my writing goals for the day early, so I decided to make us a big Thanksgiving dinner after all. Yes, I know this is another off-the-writing-topic post, but since I mentioned meeting my...

I know that I haven't updated in a while...I was mostly writing and doing some reading. However, today is Canadian Thanksgiving, so I wanted to make sure and post. Last year, we had been here about two weeks. In fact, I was here alone, painting the interior as quickly...

So...I've been thinking a lot about how to write this so that it comes out the way I mean it and not weird... I've just finished reading Caletti's THE FORTUNES OF INDIGO SKYE. Boy did I love this book. I've liked other Caletti books (hey, she even has a character...

New stuff on Need To Read.