This afternoon @layinda awarded me the Creative Liars Award. I’m just not sure why. THAT’S A LIE. I know exactly why she awarded it to me. THAT’S ANOTHER LIE. Huh. It’s getting kind of obvious, isn’t it? Now, I am just getting ready to go on vacation for two weeks… Read more“Being a big ole liar”
Category: Meet the Editor
That’s me.
6 Personality Types Who Will Fail as Writers
You folks have seen them out there. You could hardly miss them. But why are they going to fail? THE WHINY: those who throw hissy fits when writing advice is hard on their tender egos These are the people who write back to agents who send them rejection letters. You… Read more“6 Personality Types Who Will Fail as Writers”
Passing the Versatile Blogger torch
It’s been quite a month, this June of 2010! Such a whirl of gaiety, glamor, and interviewing amazing people in the publishing industry. Quite a lot of activity, actually, for someone who’s secretly just a rickety 97-year-old bootlegger who once shot the shoe off a revenuer (and would do it… Read more“Passing the Versatile Blogger torch”
The Forces Within:
the Millicent Dillon interview on Jane & Paul Bowles
Millicent Dillon is the world’s expert on Jane and Paul Bowles, one of America’s most extraordinary and puzzling literary couples—both cutting-edge literary geniuses, expatriates in Tangier before and after WWII, both gay and yet devoted to each other for 35 years, even throughout Jane’s terrible 16-year illness after her stroke… Read more“<i>The Forces Within:</i><br>the Millicent Dillon interview on Jane & Paul Bowles”
Interviewing the Bloggess
I think people laugh because it’s bizarre and they feel better about themselves in comparison, but a small part of them is nodding in recognition because they too once wondered why Jesus wasn’t considered a zombie.—the Bloggess You’ve been hearing it from me for months now: the Bloggess found this… Read more“Interviewing the Bloggess”
Tension on Every Page:
the Donald Maass & Lisa Rector interview
Donald Maass is the head of Donald Maass Literary Agency in New York, selling more than 150 novels every year to major publishers in the U.S. and overseas. He is the author of The Career Novelist (1996), Writing the Breakout Novel (2001), Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook (2004) and The… Read more“<em>Tension on Every Page:</em><br>the Donald Maass & Lisa Rector interview”
Interviewing Donald Maass & Lisa Rector
Independent editors definitely are part of the publishing landscape now. Is it an extra burden of expense for writers? You can look at it that way, or you can see it as a level of professional help that was never before available.—Donald Maass, Donald Maass Literary Agency Welcome to June,… Read more“Interviewing Donald Maass & Lisa Rector”
Remembering Barbara Robinson
Hi, guys. I got a letter this afternoon from an aunt I haven’t talked to in years, telling me her cousin—whom I’ve been close to for a very long time, but hadn’t traded email with since last summer—died suddenly last week, after a whirlwind bout of lung cancer that I… Read more“Remembering Barbara Robinson”
8 Ways Your Story Needs to be Tweaked
Your characters need to be more distinct from each other. We all have different personalities out here. We want to identify with one character. If you make us look less-than-unique, we will get bored and decide you don’t understand us. Your plot needs to be more solidly structured. Cause. And… Read more“8 Ways Your Story Needs to be Tweaked”
4 Ways Social Media Can Screw Up Your Writing
It can EAT YOUR LIFE. Go ahead. Spend all your time and energy blogging, texting, IM’ing, hunting down great writers’ articles and posts on Twitter, connecting with other writers on Facebook, updating your LinkedIn profile, registering with StumbleUpon, Digg, Squidoo, and all the other bazillions of blogonetworking tools out there…. Read more“4 Ways Social Media Can Screw Up Your Writing”