I still remember the moment. My husband and I were in the checkout line at the grocery store. I was reading the headlines on the magazines when I saw this one, “Constipation Killed the Dinosaurs.” Until then, I don’t think I realized how amazingly creative tabloid writers need to be. Here’s your assignment: Write a...Read More

Ideas are cheap and abundant; what is of value is the effective placement of those ideas into situations that develop into action. –Peter F. Drucker Author and management consultant Peter F. Drucker reminds us that ideas are cheap. As writers, our ideas mean little until we put them in writing. But here’s the big question:...Read More

In 2002, when Julie Powell began her Julie and Julia blog project, cooking 524 of Julia Child’s recipes in a single year, the project book was a fairly new idea. The Julie and Julia book was published in 2005, and Sony pictures made it into a movie in 2009. Today, the market is flooded with project...Read More

  If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that. —Stephen King On Saturday, I stopped at our local library with a big bag. I spent time reviewing the shelves of new books, paying attention to the book titles and covers that grabbed my...Read More

Most of you know I am a big fan of social media. In fact, most of the people who guest post on this blog are people I met through social media. I met my fantastic book publicist Dindy Yokel in a group on LinkedIn. A few weeks ago, Dindy introduced me to Wayne Breitbarth, an expert...Read More

Between saying and doing, many a pair of shoes is worn out. —Iris Murdoch I’d planned to begin a new series on nonfiction book formats today. My first post on The Project Book is nearly done but not quite ready to publish. So instead I am writing about one of my favorite things—and something every...Read More

Thanks to everyone who entered the Calendar contest—we had more entries than ever before! YEAH! I’m thrilled to announce that we have two winners! Both Blair Monroe and Kathy Eliscu won calendars. Winners, please email me your snail mail address, and I will get them out to you as soon as possible! If you didn’t win…don’t...Read More

Last week, I happened upon artist Jane Mount’s Ideal Bookshelf series of paintings and fell in love! I lusted after this print of middle grade books that had already sold out and purchased another bookshelf of childhood favorites for now. I might just commission a painting of my own idea bookshelf. But what would I...Read More

When I speak to groups of writers, I frequently hear the question: what should I write about? Last week we talked about how following our passion can provide a pretty good list of writing topics. But if thinking about your passions did not give you enough ideas, think about doing a self-inventory of what you...Read More

      Write fast and carelessly every day. Forget all the rules. Forget your fears. Forget what your English teacher told you about the right way to write. Get down your observations, feelings, and ideas. Don’t write about anything boring to you—that’s a sign that you are telling lies, writing to please others and...Read More