Category: Meet the Editor

We did it! We survived! And now we have a few questions to ask ourselves. . .one, two, three, four, five. . .in fact. . . 23 Questions for the End of NaNoWriMo. [I KNOW: I finally turned off comments because of the spam. Thank you for all your comments… Read more“23 Questions to Ask Yourself at the End of NaNoWriMo”

So, a year ago Joanna Penn of The Creative Penn and I got together on videocam and met each other face to face for the first time ever. This was huge for a lot of reasons, not the least of which being that Joanna and I had ‘known’ each other… Read more“Being interviewed about Storytelling by Joanna Penn”

We’re talking about tackling first drafts this month, for the sake of all you NaNoWriMoers scampering around out there. We’ve looked at Running into the Jaws of NaNoWriMo (doing what into the what?), 3 Essential Guidelines for starting a novel in general (doing it how?), and 3 Vital Steps to… Read more“3 Crucial Aspects of Writing Scenes for NaNoWriMo”

You know, I’ve always wondered where Writer’s Digest gets their nominations for the 101 Best Websites for Writers. However, I never actually did any research—you guys know how I am about research, always both preaching and shrieking about it in fairly equal measure. So today my alter-ego blog, Writer Unboxed,… Read more“Writer’s Digest 101 Best Website for Writers: <br>Open Nominations”

Hope is the thing with wings. —Emily Dickinson So I assume you’ve all heard by now. AMERICA WON. I can’t tell you how full my heart is: for every single American who got out there and voted, the record turn-out numbers, in spite of Hurricane Sandy, hours-long waits at the… Read more“3 Motivations to Write: Joy, Gratitude, & Hope <br>& the Greatest of These is Hope”

Only 537 votes decided the 2004 US Presidential election. Five hundred and thirty-seven. Those votes changed the course of history. Over the four years that followed 2004 we, the people, lost control of our economy, our foreign relations, our very jobs that put roofs over our children’s heads, clothes on… Read more“537 Things You Need to Know TODAY”

I want to tell you all two stories today. Because I’m a storyteller. 1. In Las Vegas at the age of about four I learned what gambling is I began my education on the subject of gambling at quite a tender age. When I was very young my family—with four… Read more“Gambling with Our Lives: 2 Stories for Today”

This weekend I, inadvertently but unmistakably, stumbled upon the six essentials for a Writer’s Perfect Weekend. I swear, it was like having a dragon fall out of the sky and land on me. Wow. It was exactly the way the Climactic epiphany of all great fiction is meant to be:… Read more“6 Essentials for a Writer’s Perfect Weekend: <br>Now with MORE Dancing Dragons!”

Never doubt that thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has.—Margaret Mead I’ve talked a lot to you guys, over the past four years on this blog, about the choices we all face as writers—especially during these turbulent publishing times. I’ve researched… Read more“The 2 Choices of a Writer in These Best of Times & Worst of Times”

Never doubt that thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has.—Margaret Mead I find myself writing this letter to so many of my clients when they reach that brick wall in their writing—you know the one I mean: the one that brings… Read more“An Open Letter to Writers in 3 Acts: <br>the Anguish & the Glory”