Category: Meet the Editor

. . . It is with great sorrow that I share the news of the passing of my beloved blog cat. He was diagnosed last month with inoperable cancer and died yesterday in our arms. He was fourteen and a half years old. For those of you who have been… Read more“Farewell to my beloved blog cat”

My husband found this excerpt from Mark Twain’s famous criticism of The Deerslayer by James Fenimore Cooper on the blog of Marcel Gagne: Writer and Free Thinker at Large. This excerpt has become known as “Mark Twain’s Rules of Writing.” And I tell you people, verily, these rules are as… Read more“Mark Twain on a Work of Art vs. Literary Delirium Tremens”

So, last month was all about writers conferences, and if you were busy all month actually attending those conferences you can catch up with us here, and here, and here, and especially here (a story of hope!). Then last Friday I confessed what happened after that last writers conference. …. Read more“The Writer’s 3 Organizational Tools: <br>Jadestone Hatchet, Artist’s Easel, & Cat”

Exciting news! This summer I was contacted by Fiction Southeast, the prestigious online literary magazine. They asked if I’d be interested in contributing a regular monthly piece for them. They’ve published Joyce Carol Oates, Ron Carlson, Robert Olen Butler, Michael Marton, and Aimee Bender, so they were offering me quite… Read more“Fiction Southeast, literary magazine”

Recently, my husband made me my own custom mug. Then we discovered you could also get them as all kinds of different drinking vessels like frosted glasses and travel mugs and a cup that looks black when it’s cold but shows the design as it heats up. Then he ventured… Read more“Has a Techno-Shaman Ever Worn Your Blog T-Shirt?”

Wow, it’s been years since the New Yorker magazine published the original editing job Gordon Lish did on Raymond Carver’s short story, “Beginners.” You may or may not have heard about the fracas surrounding that publication. And even if you’ve read some of Carver’s work, you might not recognize this… Read more“3 Things Gordon Lish Did Right by Raymond Carver”

“If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs. . .” —Rudyard Kipling Okay, two very disparate things to draw links between today (which linking is, of course, the basic act of all art): MUGS We had a quick chat one week recently about whether or… Read more“Mugs & Publishers: What’s the Difference?”

All right, folks, we’re going out with a bang this month with three really beautifully-done entries for my 2009 series of HOOK Edits, from Jeff Betts, Laura Eno, and Sean O’Mordha. These authors left me with very little do do, edit-wise. Please give them a round of applause! I want… Read more“Final 3 Free HOOK Edits—<br>by Jeff Betts, Laura Eno, & Sean O’Mordha”

I finished my 2009 free HOOK Edit series with #22, the hook to which I made the fewest edits. This one is called A lot of people think garbage collectors are idiots, by Jeff Betts. (You can still find all these Sample Edits under my Editing Services.) Now I want… Read more“Free HOOK Edit: A lot of people think garbage collectors are idiots—<br>by Jeff Betts”

We’re doing #21 in my 2009 series of free HOOK Edit Specials today: readers sent me the first 150 words of their novels, and I did a quick Developmental Edit on each one, followed by a Copy & Line Edit. (You can still find all these Sample Edits under my… Read more“Free HOOK Edit: Katie had just taken the first bite—<br>by Laura Eno”