At the start of 2018 I got a round of feedback that was, well, like a fire hose of information. It took me some time to figure out how to analyze it all (you can find that here: How to Process an Edit Letter (with spreadsheets)). While I was working ...
This song by The Beatles is definitely my revision anthem this year. Aside from being a beautiful song, it's also full of yearning. And that is what revising UNCHURCHED has been like for me: a lot of yearning. Why can't it just BE the book I want ...
I'm probably the last to the "Year in Review" party, but I have a good excuse! The mountain behind my house was on fire. Literally. See, where we live is very dry and fireworks are banned in the entire municipality. But, someone decided to celebrate ...
It's nearly that time again: National Novel Writing Month. Every November I and thousands of other writers challenge ourselves to write 50,000 words in just 30 days. It's a big goal, and it's really hard, and it's a lot of fun. It's also the way I dr ...
Things haven't exactly gone as predicted this year. My habit, in years past, has been to spend the whole summer before NaNo preparing. I outline the hell out of it, which frees my mind up from worrying about plot to concentrate on prose. This year I ...
I'm impatient to get going this year. I mean, there's always some impatience going in, but this year feels stronger than in the past. It's a mixture of excitement and anxiety. And just plain, "But I wanna!" I realize that I didn't actually blog abou ...
Or rather, an ode to Bridget. BRIDGET JONES helped keep my sanity intact on a very long flight. (Johannesburg to JFK is about 17+ hours.) I had bought it and THE EDGE OF REASON at the airport and I'm so glad I did. Every minute accounting of fat c ...
I've been tagged for the 7/7/7/ #PitchWars Challenge by Verna Austen. Here are the rules: Go to page 7 of your WIP. Scroll down to Line 7. Share the next 7 sentences in a blog post. After the excerpt, tag 7 other writers to continu ...
This post is inspired by the #PitchWars mentors, who have said time and again that this contest is about community. Finding friends, CPs, commiserators, etc. And it occurred to me, "Why am I not talking DIRECTLY to the other wannabe mentees? We're ho ...
A few weeks ago I stumbled across the blog of Derek Murphy, a book cover artist. He was running a special promotion in honor of NaNoWriMo. 30 Covers in one day. Now that's a challenge! He was soliciting novels so I threw my hat into the ring. He mad ...
Janine is a fairly common name. Were there any songs with "Janine" in the lyrics? I wondered. HELLS YEAH. David Bowie lyrics! This has been your 5-minute distraction moment.
I have, technically, finished my first draft. It runs all the way from the beginning to the end, minus some missing scenes. The story still known as Statutory State (because I have yet to come up with something better) stands at about 72k. That leav ...
