2018: My Year in Review

It's the end of the year! And that means it's time for me to look back at what I accomplished, and lament review how it went! (Also, I full acknowledge that this is going to be ridiculously boring to anyone who isn't me. Sorry. It's tradition.) Reading: The trend continues! If there's one thing I'm …

On Why “I Want to be Published” May Not Be Great Motivation

Hello again! I'm back from my NaNoWriMo adventure. Alas, I didn't actually win NaNo this year, but hey! I got out of the house a few times, met a few new people, and got to better know some of the folks in my region. That's a win in itself! And now, let's get back to …

And Now, a Short Hiatus for NaNoWriMo 2018

It's October 31! You know what that means! ...OK. Yes. It's Halloween. I actually meant something else. It's the end of October. And tomorrow's the start of November! And that means it's time for National Novel Writing Month--also known as NaNoWriMo--a beloved annual event where writers try to write a 50,000-word story in a month. …

The Contradictory World of Querying Agents

It's fun to complain, isn't it? Let's complain about querying! Querying is complicated! Querying is messy! And every time I query, I am simultaneously delighted that I seem to be doing OK and terrified that I'm doing everything wrong. And both might be true! Nothing makes sense. Everything is anxiety-inducing. This post has no point! …

Middle Grade Stories aren’t Just Young Adult without Sex: Some Thoughts on Genre

First thing's first! Want to enter a giveaway for Justice Unending? Just hop over to LibraryThing, change the "Media" drop-down to "Paper Only," and scroll down until you find it. (I wish I could link directly to the thing. Sorry for all the extra steps!) And with that out of the way, let's get back …

Journaling: How Complaining About My Story Helped Me Work Through It

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how I lost a ton of time this year by trying to bully myself into coming up with awesome ideas, on a deadline, during my daily hourly writing time. It really, really didn't work. And because this wasn't working, I decided to try some other, gentler brainstorming …

Fighting a Creative Slump: Trying to Redefine What I See As “Productivity”

I'm no stranger to creative slumps. Every year, I crash at least once, wonder why I write at all, and take a few weeks off. It eventually pases, all is well again, and I get back to work. But not this year! This year has been terrible. I finished the edit of my most recent …

Learning How to Market Books: LibraryThing Is Pretty Neat

When I first started experimenting with book marketing, I managed to post about Goodreads Book Giveaways just a few months before they mad them expensive as heck. And you know what sucked? I had a box of books in my closet. I ordered a small number of books so I could test out Goodreads, but …

Socializing, Platform, and Actually Talking to People: What’s an Author Supposed to Do?

It's been a while since I posted! So, first off: sorry for vanishing off the face of the Earth like that. Mostly, I've been busy. Busy-busy. Work's nuts. Long hours. Overtime. Craziness. There's barely been time to write, and if I don't have time to write, then I definitely don't have time to blog. But …

Fun With QueryTracker: How to Spend Too Much Time with the Data Explorer

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm back in the query trenches. And that means I'm spending way too much time thinking about querying. So let's talk about one of my favorite QueryTracker tools: the Data Explorer! What is the Data Explorer? The Data Explorer shows every time a QueryTracker user has submitted a …