In which I jump into a hypothetical time machine... I'm honored to announce that today I'm featured on Tess Hardwick's blog, answering the question "What advice would you give your 20-year-old self?" for her 20 Thursday blog series. I talk about college, boys, my word skills that I've used for good and for evil, and my need to that I'm loved over and over again (I seem…
It's harder to answer this question than it seems: What did I used to love doing? It's funny how things we love, things that brought us life or joy or a feeling of passionate purpose become things that we use the past tense to talk about. Did. Used to. Remember when we... Sometimes it's hard to remember because we've created a new default way of having fun. …
Every writer gets them. No one can escape them. No one, ever, has been brilliant and perfect enough of a writer with universal tastes that everyone agrees with to evade the reality of bad reviews, angry comments, or rude messages. Rest assured, this is not a rant about a horrible review I just received. I'm actually quite OK with people publicly declaring if they don't like something I wrote. (In fact, if everyone agreed that…
Sometimes the worst memories are also the best. As a child, my family and I grew up very tight-knit and close. I spent every single December 25th with my parents and siblings from the day I was born till the year I turned twenty. That year, my mother decided she wanted to go to Guatemala for her birthday, December 24th, and she went with my dad and…
I took this photo as I was getting ready for a sprint during NaNoWriMo. My friend, who has done NaNoWriMo several times before, (I consider her one of the hardened, battle-ready pros), told me to take a "before" and "after" shot of my workspace, because it was about to slide from well-intentioned organization mode down the slope to complete insanity survival mode. The office didn't get quite as messy…
Comparison is the thief of joy. -Anonymous I recently awoke from a vivid dream filled with high seas adventures, golden beaches, a stowaway, an overprotective parent, unrequited love, and secret treasures of the heart. The interesting part about this dream is that I took away from it less inspiration for a new story to write, and more inspiration for how I will treat my writing friends. To be…
It's here! Moonlight and Oranges is officially for sale on Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com in both paperback and eBook! You can look to the right of this post at the snazzy link that takes you right to Amazon.com to purchase it. Now that the moment has finally arrived, ("This is real, Elise. You're not dreaming. The numbness and disbelief is perfectly normal and proportional to how badly you've…
When I first began writing, everything was about extremes. I focused on making my characters as beautiful they could be, having as much fun and excitement as possible, and the bottom line was that I kept myself entertained. I wrote because I found storytelling exciting, and all of my stories had the requirement that they continuously enthrall my imagination. My first “writing” was actually illustration with a few…
I am now a little more than two weeks away from launching Moonlight and Oranges. But before I go into more of that, please join me in welcoming the glorious, smashing cover design for Moonlight and Oranges, designed for me by Isaiah Qualls. Isn't it gorgeous??? If I could look back and say what were the five most important things I did to bring myself to this…
Are certain places more "lucky" or "fruitful" to write in than others? Are there spots that have proven so inspirational and productive to ghosts of authors past, that writer-pilgrims can visit them and be filled with fresh ideas? While James and I were vacationing last month in Rome, I discovered in my Italy tour book that there was a certain little cafe near the Spanish Steps…