Writing Blog
The word count conundrum
At some point before submitting, a writer must confront the big question out there : What kind of word count is acceptable to literary agents and publishers? Fortunately, there’s a VERY helpful post for writers from Writer’s Digest on word count, broken down by genre. This is something you may not have considered until the…
Read More#ReadWomen2014
I read about this great initiative, the #ReadWomen2014 Twitter campaign earlier this year. In recent years, a lot of attention has been focused on the gender bias in the publishing industry. Despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of readers are women, male authors still enjoy the lion’s share of media attention, awards, covers of…
Read MoreI’ve been nominated for the Liebster Blog Her Award
An extra big thank you/grazie to my blog buddy and real-life buddy each year in Matera, the talented author Catherine McNamara, for nominating me for the Liebster Blog Her Award. If you don’t yet know Catherine’s work, take a look at my earlier author interviews with her for her novel and short stories. As part of…
Read MoreBrainstorming at the Spa 2014
I’ve heard so many great things about the Brainstorming at the Spa event held each year in Matera, Italy. This year it takes place 4-7 April 2014. This is an event organized by the Women’s Fiction Festival I write so much about, held each year in September in Matera, southern Italy. For the past three…
Read MoreAuthor interview: A romance author with a soft spot for technology and controversy – Ashlinn Craven
I am very excited to have Swiss-based Irish author Ashlinn Craven on my blog today, following the release of her debut novel Maybe Baby. I’ve been lucky enough to have had Ashlinn as a critique partner, and was fortunate to read an early version of this book, which I absolutely loved. Because I’ve been hoping to…
Read MoreMore writing inspiration on the slopes
As this post goes out, I’ll be wrapping up a great week with my family out on the ski slopes of Italy’s Abruzzo region. I always look forward to a week-long skiing break (heck, if I could, I’d make it a month-long skiing break), and my kids are avid skiers. I’ve written before on skiing…
Read MoreImportant lessons from first-time novelists
The excellent Writers’ Digest web site posted this interesting article on lessons learned by first-time novelists. Five novelists share their experiences along the pathway to publication – discussing their writing lives before their first novel, their submission processes, their experiences with writers conferences, balancing writing and work/family commitments, and what they’d wished they’d known before…
Read MoreFirst person narrative isn’t serious?
Nathan Bransford, of the fabulous Nathan Bransford blog – a treasure trove for writers – weighs in on the first person narrative in the post Wait. A first person narrative isn’t serious? Bransford received numerous comments for an earlier post weighing in on types of narrators, and was surprised by readers’ comments that writing professors,…
Read MoreWhat are literary agents’ querying pet peeves?
The excellent Writers in the Storm blog posted recently on Query letter pet peeves – Agents speak. Listen up, writers. It’s hard enough to get an agent today. You at least want to do your best to avoid sending your masterpiece out into the world and having it summarily ignored because you’ve inadvertently angered your…
Read MoreDo you take the Goodreads Reading Challenge?
I’m probably just a sucker for competition, but last year I signed up for the 2013 Goodreads Reading Challenge, and this year I’m back for more. I’ve always been a bookworm anyway, but it’s kind of neat to catalogue your books for the year, to look back at the covers of the books you read,…
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