According to Wikipedia, a red-letter day is any day of significance and my goodness did I have one! Last week I sent out my normal batch of query letters via email. This is part of my marketing plan, which entails sending out queries for my manuscript, Moonlight and Oranges, every two weeks or so. That same day, to my unbelieving eyes, two positive responses came back from two…
How many times, when setting out to edit/revise a piece of writing have you lost yourself in your own prose, enjoying the story once again as a reader, rather than an editor? It happens all the time to me. True, it's an excellent sign if you're able to captivate yourself, and there will be moments when you know a scene is sizzling because your heart races every time you…
Last week I received my first writing review with some serious professional clout. As you know if you've been following this blog, I was a quarter-finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards this year for my novel Moonlight and Oranges, which is a huge honor and a nice pat on the back. I'd never made it this far in a large contest before. After the quarter-finals, comes…
Book Launch. Def. a very personal and monumental event in which a writer gets something of his/her own published and then invites everyone he/she knows to commemorate the occasion. I attended the book launch for the novel Blood, by Jack Remick last week. Jack is among the horde of writers who gather together at a cafe in Seattle to write and share their creations, fresh off the page. He invited me…
You have reached the level of competency where you need another pair of eyes to look at your writing and honestly tell you what works and what doesn't. You need a critique group. Critique groups for writers are one of the best things you can use to improve your own writing. A good critique group should: 1. Be a safe place for all levels of writers. 2. Give constructive feedback. 3.…