Without revealing too much about myself, I will say this: most of my epiphanies about writing come in the shower. It’s there that I recognize the source of a problem, or come to some resolution of a dilemma. Yesterday, in the shower, I realized the difference between writing fiction and nonfiction: nonfiction tells itself in [...]
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Posted 20 May 2010
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Also tagged: fiction
I’ll be speaking at an event next week in which I intend to talk about instincts, and intuition, and what they mean when you’re the mother of a disabled child, how to rediscover them when the old ways aren’t sufficient. This has me thinking, naturally, of how intuition and instinct come into play with writing [...]
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Posted 15 April 2010
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Also tagged: Luna
After my most recent post, a reader asked in the comments about binders and loose leaf and process. Any long term reader of the blog will know that I love to discuss process, so naturally the question had me reflecting on my own long journey with the written word.
When I first began writing seriously, just [...]
I first became aware of The Debutante Ball when fellow writers Gail Konop Baker and Kristina Riggle introduced me to the site. Both Gail and Kris were in the process of publishing their first books (Cancer Is A Bitch and Real Life and Liars, respectively) and on The Debutante Ball they mused on the internal [...]
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Posted 17 October 2009
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I’ve had a devil of a time trying to find the right spot in my house for this new writing I want to do. I tried the bedroom, a couch downstairs, the library and even Starbucks, and nothing seemed to work (in order: too hot, too quiet, too noise) and finally I settled on [...]
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Posted 13 July 2009
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June has come and gone–really?–and now it’s the official start of summer. This I know because I saw Wilco perform last week, a summer ritual for me.
The show was exhilarating, without a doubt the tightest Wilco show I’ve seen yet, the most energetic and the most exuberant. I came home to tell The Husband that [...]
Closer, closer, closer we step. Advance reader copies of The Book. I feel like I should post a few baby pictures by way of comparison.
Which came from this:
Which came from this:
Yes, I started out the old-fashioned way, by hand.*
What brought us here, me and the book? Hard work, perseverance and, finally, luck. I don’t talk [...]
For many months, while I wrote, The Book was more or less a primary character on this blog. A year ago, as many readers know (yes, almost a year now), I got the great good news that The Book had won a beautiful prize and would in fact be published. In that year, I have [...]
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Posted 17 March 2009
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I have a guest post up at Lisa Romeo’s blog on the copyediting process. Head on over, read and comment. And while you’re there, be sure to browse around in Lisa’s site for some great insights about about writing, reading, books, life after the MFA, editing (and editors), submissions, getting published (and rejected), media [...]
Is never done. Red pencil? Check. Eraser? Check. Post-its? Nope, forgot to buy those, said omission having led me to a serious panic attack yesterday when I felt certain I must. have. post-its or else I could not possibly finish the job. Then I remembered a strategy I often employed in life before post-its, to [...]
