I’m struggling with my novel in progress. The plot has literally become a shapeshifter, morphing from one genre to another on a daily basis. I just realized my antagonist and protagonist [...]
The New Years resolution at the top of my list is to finish The Black Sea, my novel in progress. And not just to finish it but to wrap it up in two to three months. Admittedly some of my [...]
I recently saw the new Marvel movie, Dr. Strange. I enjoyed its dazzling dreamlike special effects but also found it helpful to me as writer. I’ve been struggling with how to make the [...]
NaNoWriMo has officially begun and not just for adults. Some teachers are even doing NaNoWriMo with their students. It’s pretty cool that trying to write a novel in a month has become a [...]
When I set out to write a novel inspired by the case of Charles Schmid, the “Pied Piper of Tucson,” I knew from the start that I was not the only writer to find a story in this case.
The debate about whether YA is good for teens or adults or space aliens has surfaced again, and much as I wanted to resist the click bait, I read the article. I got annoyed.
I’m in my last week of Camp NaNoWriMo, a summer version of November NaNoWriMo in which you get to set your own word count goals and bunk in a virtual cabin with other writers. I wish I [...]
Lately I’ve been trying to decide whether to write another young adult novel or an adult one. I have a YA novel in progress, but I worry that it doesn’t sound YA enough (whatever that [...]
As a writer, I sometimes worry so much about pleasing the marketplace that I become afraid to try new things and lose faith in that little voice that is my muse. This past weekend at Grub [...]
Some writers keep returning to the story they have to tell until they get it right. When I started my YA novel Half in Love with Death (Simon & Schuster/ Merit Press), I’d already abandoned [...]
