Learning from Rejection
Inevitably, no matter how strong or enticing a new project might be, I know that when I go out to sell, rejection is part of the process. It can be discouraging. No sooner do I contact editors, who often sound enthusiastic about considering a proposal or manuscript, then almost immediately, some “passes” stream in. As […]
Book of the Week: Main Street Vegan, Victoria Moran
Author and holistic health practitioner, Victoria Moran started eating only plants nearly thirty years ago, raised her daughter Adair a vegan from birth, and maintains a sixty-pound weight loss. In Main Street Vegan: Everything You Need to Know to Eat Healthfully and Live Compassionately in the Real Word, Moran, writing with her daughter shows us […]
Carving Out a Narrative from a Sea of Fascinating Details – On Writing History by Joseph Kelly
I fell into this book sideways. A long time ago, I wrote a short article for the Encyclopedia of the Irish in America, and I was hooked by the strange life of John England, the first Catholic bishop of Charleston. Raised in Cork, Ireland, this prickly champion of Catholic emancipation stuck like a thorn in […]
Shumaker
Heather Shumaker’s unconventional parenting book, It’s OK Not to Share…And Other Renegade Rules for Raising Competent and Compassionate Kids, has prompted parents and preschool teachers to throw away their timers and buy wrestling mats instead. Families call it “life changing.” Parents magazine book reviewer calls it “Brilliant…An enlightening book that will make you take a second look at everything you believe” and named it one of the Best Parenting Books of 2012
When to Send Out an Agent Query
The ease of email queries, which most agencies accept, has resulted in writers sending queries to agents at all times of year and hours of the day.The assumption is (I think) that it’s OK to send out queries at odd times because we agents can read them whenever we like. The reality, for this agent […]
Read of the Week: RIDDLE IN STONE, Robert Evert
I took on Robert Evert’s Riddle in Stone trilogy in part because I fell in love with his hapless protagonist, a stuttering overweight librarian. The trilogy is classic fantasy of the best sort, and like good epic fantasy, it is also about the making of a hero, in this case, an improbable hero who goes […]
To Blurb or Not to Blurb? Elaine Neil Orr
Author Elaine Neil Orr (Author of A Different Sun: A Novel of Africa and Gods of Noonday: A White Girl’s African Life) offered us this guest post on blurbing, and other thoughts of generosity after your book comes out. Thank you, Elaine! Subsequent to my first book’s appearance (a memoir), I began to receive requests for […]
Book of the Week: The Freshman Survival Guide, Nora Bradbury-Haehl and Bill McGarvey
The only guide to focus not just on academics, but also on the emotional, psychological and spiritual issues facing freshman as they make the transition from high school to college, from the editors of the popular website, Busted Halo.This is one college guidebook that freshman won’t be ashamed to read and keep in their […]
Read of the Week: TRAIL OF THE DEAD, Melissa F. Olson
As a null, Scarlett Bernard possesses a rare ability to counteract the supernatural by instantly neutralizing spells and magical forces. For years she has used her gift to scrub crime scenes of any magical traces, helping the powerful paranormal communities of Los Angeles stay hidden. But after LAPD detective Jesse Cruz discovered Scarlett’s secret, he […]
Story Telling vs. Story Trapping, by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez
The process of writing the first draft of book one of The Guardian Herd Series was magical for me. The story leapt from my head, fully formed, like Venus. There is something sacred about that, right? You don’t mess with a story straight from the muse, do you? I thought you didn’t. I thought a […]