I’ve always loved spooky books. I recently re-read one of Ruth Chew’s magical chapter books and was transported back—young Kim reading in a corner of my third-grade classroom, the steamy windows decorated with tissue paper bats and jack-o’-lanterns, the smell of chili and cinnamon rolls wafting in from the gymnasium lunchroom. When fall arrives I…
Whether you’re a traditionally published or self-published author, you’re going to have to promote your book on your own time and your own dime, for the most part. There are exceptions, but plan on being your own marketer. For the past year or so I’ve been watching Kimberly Nixon do a heck of a job…
I learned this week that Marie Curie’s notebooks are radioactive and will be for another 1,500 years. If you’d like to get your hands on them at the Musée Curie in Paris, you’ll need to wear protective gear and sign a waiver. So, since notebooks were on my mind, I stopped to give them further…
Writer’s block. It’s a thing. But it doesn’t have to be your thing anymore. It’s frustrating to feel stuck in your work, but you often only need to take a smallish action, usually one you’re not used to doing, to get through it and beyond it. Writer’s block is not the same as being burnt…
[You can check out the first Mother/Daughter Book Club post if you’re interested in reading thoughts from me and daughter Evelyn on Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, Haruki Murakami’s After Dark, and This is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. The second installment is all about Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara…
Do I even need to talk about why the opening pages of your book are capital “C” critical? I doubt I do. Writers are readers, and you know how you either fall into a book or lean away from it, and then quit it, usually quickly. As an editor and writing teacher, I’ve spent years…