Tag: fiction
Further Thoughts on the Closing of Booktrope
When I got the news that Booktrope is closing, I was on day 3 of a vacation in Europe. I had just awoken to my first full day in Prague, and, as is my custom, […]
Crowdsourcing for My Tagline
I’ve been lax about updating my blog for the past few weeks. First it was The Moth and now it’s the interminable task of updating my website and figuring out how to market Raising John […]
Pantsing versus Plotting and the Emergence of a New Work Style
As I have mentioned in previous posts, I’m working on the sequel to Raising John. As I have not yet mentioned, I recently made a commitment to my book manager at Booktrope to publish it […]
The Glamorous Life of a Writer/Airplane Mechanic
Four days a week I work overnight at SeaTac airport. I report for work at 9 PM and get off in the wee or not-so-wee hours of the morning, depending on the workload. When I […]
Remember My Writing Career?
Remember how, in addition to becoming an airplane mechanic, I was also into writing? Remember how I wrote a book? And published it myself? Well, about a year ago, I signed on with Booktrope to […]
I’ve Finally Gone and Done It
I’ve published my book! Please bear with me for this commercial blog post. I’ll return you to your regularly scheduled program of travel stories and philosophical musings next week. But for now – I PUBLISHED A […]
In Honor of NaNoWriMo
Back in the days when I did NaNoWriMo yearly I developed a strategy that helped me keep writing when my ideas dried up: two characters, the writer and the therapist. They got together whenever I needed to […]
Scenes From a Writing Weekend
Last weekend, driven by a prearranged date with an editor, I finally buckled down and wrote the 4.5 scenes that I believe my book needed in order to be complete. I had spent many hours […]
Synopsis Flopsis
Recently I needed to update my novel’s synopsis in order to enter the manuscript in a literary contest. I hadn’t looked at my synopsis since before I revised my novel, so I knew it would […]
Maybe You DO Know What You’re Doing
When I first drafted my novel Raising John, I chose that title because it fit with what I was trying to express, and it was the first title that came to mind. When I sent […]
Update on the Novel
After 18 fallow months, I spent a recent weekend sequestered and revising. I went into the weekend thinking that it would be the first of many needed in order to get my manuscript up to […]
A Rough Guide to Novelating – Part I
Bookstores and the Internet are littered with guides to writing a novel. Some recommend working at a set time every weekend. Some advise aspiring writers to turn out a certain number of pages every day. […]
Back in the Saddle
Back when I started this blog, I intended to write about the process of writing a novel, but I also knew that I would be happy just to establish a regular publishing schedule. I think […]
Men’s fiction
Last fall, over dinner at a writing retreat, one of the instructors commented that she would like to see people start referring to the works of male novelists as “men’s fiction.” She went onto say […]
Sometimes it’s Better to Tell Than to Show
Maybe I should just stop reading any advice about writing. I say this because one of the currently popular writing rules is that you should show, not tell. Meaning, if you want to let your […]
The Elation and Agony of Feedback
As I have traveled the road from non-writer to owner of a nearly completed manuscript I have solicited and received quite a few critiques. Some came from friends, who have been wonderfully supportive but not […]
Your Stay in Federal Prison
Back in the days when I dreamed of writing a novel, but had not yet written one, I often wondered about book research. They always say “write what you know” but in fact that can […]
When Writing a Novel …
After numerous hideaway weekends and another Kauai hell week (those words shouldn’t go together, but here they do) I believed I had a saleable manuscript. It was spring of 2010. It was at this point […]
About That Novel
Since I started this blog, several people have asked when my novel will be finished and how I managed to write it. I don’t have a simple answer to either question but since people are […]
Samsonspite
Sometimes I think I should move to a cabin in the mountains where I can sit on a porch with a shotgun across my knees and blast away at anything that annoys me. The older […]
Jennifer Lesher 