Today, I’m delighted to welcome award-winning middle grade author Donna Gephart to the blog. Donna will be my guest at the May Write Now! Mastermind class on Wednesday, May 22 at 12:00 PM. If you’re interested in attending and are not already a member of the Write Now! Mastermind class, stop by the Mastermind page...Read More
Today I am celebrating my birthday! As a gift to myself, I’m taking more time this year to work on my fiction writing. In order for that to happen, I need to let go of another writing task. Which is where you come in! I’m looking for writers who are willing to contribute great Wednesday...Read More
Attend any writing conference, and you’ll hear participants saying to each other: +Do I need an agent to get a book contract? +Do you have an agent? +Is it hard to find the right agent? For those of you who have asked those questions and felt as confused as this bookshelf is, here are some...Read More
For today’s Wednesday Writing Prompt, I’m delighted to welcome Milwaukee-area writer Christi Craig. We met for coffee recently, and we talked about a passion of hers, flash nonfiction. She’s here to tell us more about the genre and challenge us to a flash fiction writing exercise. Ready, set, enjoy! Writing in Short Form: the Power...Read More
How do you know you’re a real writer? Some writers have real writing jobs, where they go to work and write stuff and collect paychecks. Others work the freelance route, sending off queries and hoping for the “yeses” that mean a writing gig. Book writers spend years writing and revising novels or memoirs and then...Read More
I met Bob many years ago, when I was a graduate student. Over the years he has served as my mentor, friend, project manager, fellow author, and book recommender. Then as now, he never fails to surprise me with his unending curiosity about ideas. Bob’s here today to talk about the nonfiction books that will...Read More
Listen to the mustn’ts, child. Listen to the don’ts. Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me… Anything can happen, child. Anything can be. —Shel Silverstein In the past few months—really, in the past year—I’ve thought about chucking the whole writing dream and reinventing myself...Read More
When I was in my 20s, I began keeping a commonplace book for the quotes I encountered when I read. I got the idea from Madeleine L’Engle in her book, Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art. She wrote: “(A parenthesis here about quotations and credits. I was taught in college how to footnote,...Read More
A week ago, I spent a whole day on the sofa, clutching my unhappy stomach. When I finally checked my email at 5 PM, there were 300 messages and almost a third of those were pitches to read or review someone’s new book. I deleted most of them—not because I was feeling sick and cranky...Read More
Today I’m delighted to welcome JoAnn Early Macken to the blog. She’s the amazing author of several beautiful picture books and a well-known and appreciated writing teacher. Her brand new book, Write a Poem Step by Step, offers a no-nonsense guide to writing a poem. JoAnn will be my guest speaker at the April Write Now! Mastermind...Read More
