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Why the Joyful Season Leaves Us So Blue
I had nothing to be blue about this season. Not really. True, only two of our five children could come home because the other three were going to be far away, and that made me sad. But everyone in...
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Vow to Write Better, Not Faster in 2016, Despite Our Binge-Loving Culture
Recently, I was skimming the front pages of the New York Times book review when I caught this item: Jonathan Safran Foer’s new novel, “Here I Am,” is coming out next fall. I’m looking forward to...
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Author Laura Drake on Indie v.s. Traditional Publishing, Cowboys and Why She...
Laura Drake is in an enviable position as a writer, having sold her “Sweet on a Cowboy” series to Grand Central, winning a 2014 Romance Writers of America RITA© award in the “Best First Book”...
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How to Kill a Main Character Without Murdering Your Book
One of the worst mistakes I ever made as a green novelist was to ignore the advice of editors and friends who told me certain manuscripts needed overhauling. I simply refused. I had put the plot on...
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Author Yona Zeldis McDonough Talks about Lucky Breaks and Following Your...
Yona Zeldis McDonough is the author of seven novels for adults. She is also an award-winning children’s book author with 26 children’s books to her credit, a journalist, an essayist, and a fiction...
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What Is Your Purpose?
I often wake up in the middle of the night. Our children are scattered around the world now, so my typical insomnia starts when I wake and start wondering whether they’re safe. You know: the usual...
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Confessions of a Ghost Writer: Pay No Attention To That Woman Behind the Curtain
Recently, I appeared on a radio show to promote a literary event. We were talking about my latest novel, but inevitably the host asked, “So you’re a ghostwriter, too? Who have you written for?” I...
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The 6 Biggest Surprises of a Writer’s Life
When a friend asked recently what I was working on, I was excited to share my publishing news: I had just delivered my new novel to my editor at Penguin, and now I’m deep into a fascinating...
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Author Marin Thomas Talks about Writing through Doubt, Navigating Social...
Author Marin Thomas has had an enviable career as a writer by any stretch, having published twenty-five romance novels with Harlequin before venturing into women’s fiction with her newest book, “The...
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When Writing, Sometimes All You Can Do Is Jump
The most important thing every writer has to do is take a leap of faith. What does that mean, exactly? That, no matter how stuck you are at the start of a book, or how unwieldy your manuscript becomes...
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How One Coach Got Me Off the Couch—and Inspired My Writing
I’m the mother of three champion long distance runners. I honestly don’t know how that happened, since I was never a runner. But I showed up at almost every race, bellowing, “Go, go, go!” in the best...
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Author Jennifer Brown Talks about How to Research a Novel, Conquering...
Author Jenny Brown I’m addicted to book review porn the way some people ogle real estate ads, vacation brochures, or the latest iPhone gadgets. When I first read the advance reviews of Jennifer Brown’s...
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Everything Is Fine, Until It’s Not
You know how it is: you get up in the morning and grumble because there’s too much to do. The dog wants a walk. You have to crowbar the kids off to school despite their whining. The breakfast dishes...
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I Wrote for 17 Minutes Yesterday!
Last weekend, I participated on two different author panels during the 2016 Newburyport Literary Festival, an event packed with over 70 different authors that drew 2,000 people to our tiny seaside...
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In Praise of Great Coaches: How One Out-of-Shape Older Mom Ran Her First 5K
On Mother’s Day, I ran my first 5K. After two decades of cheering on my kids at sports events, I wasn’t on the sidelines. I was an athlete. I couldn’t have done it without my coach. I’ve never had a...
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Stranger than Fiction: Men in Kilts and Firemen on My Lawn
I live in a small town, in the sort of neighborhood with sidewalks and dog walkers and kids on bikes. In other words: not much happens. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I looked out the window and saw...
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On Horses, My New Book Cover, and Coming Full Circle
My dad was a Navy officer, yet he was sent to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas when I was eleven years old. Yes, Kansas: not exactly a seafaring state. Dad’s assignment was a teaching job at the Army’s...
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Should You Track Word Count While Writing a Novel? Yes, No, and Maybe So
If you eavesdrop on a conversation between writers, it’s easy to mistake talk about craft for something else. Marathons, maybe. “I had such a slow day. Only 500 in two hours!” “Mine went well. I...
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How Do You Write a Novel? Learn the Rules. Then Break Them.
It’s tempting to believe that novelists who have already published books know “the secret.” But every novel, whether it’s your first or fifteenth, poses different challenges. Even the most...
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Where Fantasy and Reality Collide: One Novelist’s Happy Coincidences
I came downstairs just as my husband returned from our local liquor store, where he’d gone to buy wine for dinner. He brandished a bottle of rum at me. “They made it specially for you, I guess,” he...
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