By now I’ve probably said this in a dozen different places, but here goes again: I wrote What Can’t Wait for my students in Houston. Last weekend, they came out in full force for my booksigning. They rocked my world … Read more

“Productive” and “procrastination” may seem like words that don’t belong in the same time zone, much less the same sentence, but actually purposeful procrastination lets me squeeze out more productivity than I could otherwise manage with my maxed-out brain cells … Read more

Here’s a game I sometimes play to think about what’s going on with a character. I ask myself, “What does [insert character’s name here] want?” Then I write down what I think they want. Then I say to myself, “Now, come … Read more

So this is one of my lists of possible titles for What Can’t Wait. Lots of clunkers here, but that’s part of the process.

How did I finally choose the title? I did a lot of title-generating exercised, asked friends … Read more

This pie chart… It’s so true it’s scary. Cruise over to Finding Wonderland to find more Toon Thursday treasures. Only don’t follow the link if you should be writing.

If you should be writing…. GO WRITE.

When all else fails to keep you in your chair to do the writing, head down to the Humane Society and get yourself a cuddly lap pet. I love it when our cat, Sugar Mama, curls up and falls asleep … Read more

The downside to our Tuesday evening: the power went out (and still hasn’t come on). The upside to our Tuesday evening: WFIU featured What Can’t Wait on its weekly arts program, ArtWorks. Read more and listen to it here. … Read more

The zero draft is how I trick myself into writing when it seems too scary to start THE novel. It’s all the exploratory writing that I do just to feel my way into the project. While I don’t make elaborate … Read more

Cool tattoos in the photo, right? But my tattoo’s not there. In fact, the tattoo artist cocked an eyebrow at me when he saw what I wanted. “Fifty bucks is the minimum,” he said. “Doesn’t matter how small the tattoo.” … Read more

Here’s a list of books and resources for moving forward with your resolutions for writing. Posts on teaching and general living-well resolutions to follow. Whatever your resolutions, I recommend finding a good way to track your daily progress. Check out … Read more