Want to make a writer shudder? Ask them if they’ve queried yet. Recently I led a workshop on The Great American Query Letter and the participants shuffled in with the reluctance (not to say dread) of women about to try on bathing suits in an open-corral fitting room. A co-ed one. But like a job … Read more
For weeks before my book launch, I obsessed about the party I was giving. Maybe it was because it was a hard bricks and mortar thing—I was facing people in person—or maybe because it was easier to worry about facing an empty restaurant than worrying about reviews. Whatever the reasons, I had many (and conflicting) … Read more
SHE WRITES, a terrific site for women writers, asked if I’d like to be included in the group of writers they’ve invited to participate in writing a “Countdown to Publication” blog. Well, let me tell you this: having a debut novel launch includes many tasks—some Sisyphean, some plain fun, and all feeding into the … Read more
Writing a book resembles entering a reverie where the entire world is your playground. Birth, death, war, and peace (it’s in your hands. Then you finish. It”s the next step and you can’t get a handhold anywhere. Control is gone. You are subject to the whimsical tastes of agents and editors who hold the key … Read more
Books on Writing: Part 1 Whisper the words books on writing to a bunch of writers and you might have to watch the whoosh of air as they take sides so fast it’s like being transported to West Side Story. Jets: “Books, I don’t need no stinking how-to-learn-to-write books. Long as I have John Gardner, … Read more