NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month. No, it’s not a month set aside to appreciate the fine art of writing novels, it’s actually supposed to be a month where you sit down and write a novel. An actual novel, in one month. Sounds ridiculous, right? And after all, a serious novelist knows she’ll […] Read more…
“This is so exciting!” she said excitedly!!!
No, I haven’t written that sentence. Not exactly. I would never, ever, EVER use more than one exclamation mark in a row. But apparently I filled my manuscript with over 200 exclamation marks, almost all of them in dialogue, and most of those in the mouth of one rather excited character. I would have sworn […] Read more…
Summer of revisions
Despite a summer that’s been anything but—an ornery jet stream has brought us cold temperatures, overcast skies and endless rain—I’ve been having a pretty good time. That’s because I’ve been spending the summer doing revisions. First I had a set of revisions from my editor, and now I’m reworking a novel I’d written several years […] Read more…
My mentor, Rebecca Gault
I was asked recently to write a blog post for the Land of Enchantment Romance Authors’ blog. I decided to write about the woman who inspired me, and who inspired the name for the LERA writing contest, The Rebecca. You can read the original post on the LERA blog here. When I moved to Albuquerque, […] Read more…
Roald Dahl: Every writer has a secret compartment in his brain
Roald Dahl’s very big imagination comes from a “secret compartment in his brain.” On Friday we visited the Roald Dahl Museum in Great Missenden. The museum tells the story of the children’s author, from his prank-filled childhood to his career as a pilot during WWII to his beginnings as a writer. His writing hut has […] Read more…
A host of issues
A funny thing happened on the way to write a blog post. Yes, I know it’s been almost a month since I posted here. And shortly after I posted the last item, I logged in to WordPress.com to try to add another post—about my experience with the new iPad, which I received for my birthday. […] Read more…
E-book readers revisited
My previous blogpost examined some rather esoteric factors regarding e-book reading. Now I’ve come across an article that looks at the legibility of e-book readers in a more scientific way. As someone who pays a lot of attention to typography (I used to do desktop publishing, back when that word was young and exciting) I’ve […] Read more…
The intimacy of ebooks
Yesterday’s rain kept me indoors all day, curled up on the couch reading. But not with a paperback novel—I cuddled my iPad in my lap, propped up with a pillow, my dog at my feet. I was re-reading a favorite book, Susan E. Phillips First Lady. I’d read it many years ago when it first […] Read more…
The serendipitous theme
I have a terrible time plotting my books, answering the question “what happens next?” But I have a friend (a very knowledgeable plotter) who’s always told me that all the ingredients for a plot are in my head, and they eventually end up on the page, exactly in the order needed. I’m an organic plotter, […] Read more…
Plot holes and patch kits
The other day I realized, via a random tweet, that my WIP* had a big plot hole. Large enough to drive a lorry through. A lorry, for you Yanks, is what’s known as an 18-wheeler in the US. They’re every bit as big here, and yes, my plot is the size of an interstate, with […] Read more…