For me a first draft is like that impossibly slow climb to the top of a roller coaster… a roller coaster from hell that keeps getting higher and higher so that you spend WEEKS thinking, I’m almost there… I’m just … Read more
Anybody who’s remotely paying attention should know that I love Scrivener. I’m near evangelical about its virtues for everything from novel-writing to blog-touring to academic blah organizing. (Yes, my academic blahs need to be organized.)
I’m in the middle of living something new: writing hungry.
I’ve always seen the idea of the starving artist as an unnecessary cliché, but I’m as close as I will likely ever be to living it. (I certainly hope this … Read more
Who else is thinking about race in fiction AND has battled evil garden invaders?
The answer is…. Justine Larbalestier* (psst, that asterisk means “see memorial footnote below”)! On her blog this week, she has a great post about handling race… Read more
I don’t teach high school anymore, but I can’t break the habit of looking for companion texts for books (my own and other). A while back, this description of The Pregnancy Project came across my screen via the School Library Journal… Read more
Something that I’m working on in novel #3 is keeping various lines in the plot going at the same time while also creating meaningful connections between these lines. In music, this is called counterpoint. (Disclaimer, y’all: I’m no musician. In fact, … Read more
There it is, What Can’t Wait, my first-born, looking sweet on a Houston book shelf. It’s also the focus of attention–after being elbowed aside by her loud and proud little brother, The Knife and the Butterfly, who has … Read more