Thank you to the Wahoo Women for their support via email. Ann Marie Frenn sent the following quote: “It just takes ONE person on the right day to believe in you as much as you do.” I love this and now have it posted on my bulletin board. Also, a huge thank you to my… Read more »
Middle daughter woke me at 2:00am with a persistent cough. We cured the cough, but not my excitement about interviewing the last American orphan in Holy Family Orphanage in Marquette. I tossed and turned until 3:53am when I finally gave up and parked myself at my desk to prepare for the interview and do some… Read more »
I’m embarking on a new writing adventure and hope to bring you along with me on this one. I’ll chronicle the progress I make on a historical fiction middle grade chapter book I’m writing about Operation Pedro Pan. In case you haven’t heard about this part of American and Cuban history (I hadn’t until 3 months ago),… Read more »
“Writing: you need to do it to feel good about yourself even though doing it almost never makes you feel good about yourself.” —- Jim Shepard
Guess you have to be careful what you wish for. We’ve all been shaking our fists at the sky clamoring for snow and WOW — it came. Nothing like a good old Nor’wester to change the landscape. My writing plans for the day have changed, too, since I’ll be making cookies with the Twisted Sisters. Perfect. Don’t knock… Read more »
OK – I asked for it. I wanted a critique of a new rhyming MS and I got it. It wasn’t a positive critique — in fact, it was downright embarrassing. But, I let some time pass and now I can see where I got off track. The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense. — Tom… Read more »
Yawn…Just a bit sleepy. You ask, why so sleepy this early in the day? Well, a new character was mucking about in my head and instead of getting my important shut-eye, I was up at 3:00am trying to listen to the little imp. About 4:30am, I cracked open my new copy of Writing Picture Books by Ann Whitford… Read more »
Alice Pope at www.cwim.blogspot.com referenced a word counting tool at Write Words, a Writer’s Community website http://www.writewords.org.uk/ that I tried on my longest manuscript. It’s easy to do; just paste in your manuscript and in a flash (actually quicker than a flash), it counts the number of incidences of words or phrases. After I got over the number of incidences of the… Read more »
I’ve been working on a new title for Lizzy and the Twisted Sisters because it is too boring for such a wild ride of a story. Send me your ideas within 7 days (November 24) and the winner will receive a free manuscript critique by (insert drum roll…..) ME (you thought I was going to say some really famous editor or… Read more »
My family, friends, dog, librarian, and writer buddies will be glad to know I now belong to a formal critique group to review drafts 1-15 of my WsIP (works in progress). This should free up lots of lives around the world. 🙂
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