I was checking out at the grocery store yesterday with a shopping buggy jam-packed with food. An elderly African American man came up in line behind me with cucumbers and a bottle of [...]

I had a few comments yesterday on my slush pile post that asked for more detail on how I negotiated my contract with Midnight Ink in 2008. At the time, I didn’t have [...]

Helen Ginger on her excellent blog, Straight from Hel which follows and reports publishing news and trends, linked to a story in the venerable Wall Street Journal that proclaimed the death of the [...]

Martin Luther King day was a school holiday for my children. The evening before, I got an email from my friend. “Could we set the girls up with a playdate at our house [...]

I have two manuscripts that are in the pre-submission stage. One is far along in the process—in the hands of my agent and going to Midnight Ink in ASAP, and the the other [...]

I’ve been thinking about 2010 plans for my blog and there were a couple of ideas I had for guest posts this year. Also, I wanted to update my bloglists in the sidebar [...]

When I got my daughter’s 3rd grade newsletter (when she finally returned to school after her bout with the flu), there was an entire page on a new technique they were using to [...]

After my post, Time, I got an email regarding my first drafts and the speed with which I write them. The reader was interested in getting some tips on speeding up the process. [...]

I had a disaster Wednesday, similar to what you’d find in one of my Myrtle Clover mysteries. I realized after my daughter had been up for several hours, that her cough sounded different [...]

This fall and winter have really tested my nursing abilities. Unfortunately, both my children have the seasonal flu right now. One of those kids has already had H1N1 recently (October.) I’ve been busily [...]

I’m guessing we’re all trying to see if we’re on track as far as scheduling different writing tasks. For what it’s worth, here’s my average total for different activities. It varies some days, [...]

I cut off the rest of this one-page synopsis of Disney’s Pocahontas, which has Avatar’s characters and plot plugged into it…I didn’t want to create a spoiler for the movie, if you haven’t [...]

I’ve said before that the biggest moment for me in getting published was when I determined what I wanted as a writer. There are so many directions that you can follow with writing. [...]

“So, what are you working on now?” Do you mind telling people about your WIP (work in progress)? Or does it make you grit your teeth when they ask? Do you wonder why [...]

When I was a kid in the late 1970s in Anderson, South Carolina, I’d sometimes have to go to the drugstore with my mother. This was not a fun trip for me. Other [...]

I was driving back from having lunch with my husband yesterday when I saw a little tableau playing out on the side of the road. Well, the road was actually a major highway [...]

Yesterday I wrote about books and manuscripts with wooden prose and a flat delivery. Ways I thought a writer could jazz up the writing a bit were by changing the voice, revising the [...]

Have you ever run into really flat writing? It’s the kind of wooden writing you see from many non-writers. Desultory, lifeless. There’s no passion at all in it…just a straight narrative. A retelling [...]

My daughter was a little bored yesterday afternoon, so I offered to play a game with her. I didn’t want to play a long game with her (like Monopoly), and it happened that [...]

As I mentioned on Thursday, you don’t have to spend a lot of money to become a better writer. You can use your library card and get more information than you can ever [...]

Yesterday I stretched myself a little. The stretching exercise involved the garbage disposal, which spitefully kicked the bucket on New Year’s Day, following a visit by my husband’s family. I grabbed the phone [...]

I decided to make resolutions for myself in July. I needed to set some goals and that was just the time to make them. Here are my resolutions and how I fared. Originally [...]

You don’t have to spend a lot of money to become a better writer. That’s a good thing because most writers don’t have a ton of money to throw around. The library has [...]

Time for all the year-end retrospectives. I sort of like them…but sort of not. So mine is more of a recap of things I learned this year and resources I gathered. January—I discovered [...]

I’ve frequently been guilty of tunnel vision. I’m very Type A, and to me, staying the course sometimes means completing a project or train of thought. You’ve sent me a Christmas card? You’re [...]

Have you ever watched something unexpected happen? My now-8 year old daughter was a cute baby. She was roly-poly and liked singing to herself in baby babble. Her hair stuck straight up and [...]

            Cool: Tell your friends your mother writes books. Have them convinced you’re a liar. Have Mom verify later she actually does write. Maximum impact! Your name is [...]

This post functions as a follow up to the last one. What if you do need your protagonist to go down into a dark basement? I think most readers agree that one thing [...]

What makes a good protagonist? This is a pretty subjective question since different readers like different types of heroes and heroines. But I see some common traits among the protagonists I admire: They’re [...]

Like many writers, I’m a huge fan of books. If I hear a recommendation, I’m there. The library has made it so easy for me—simply sign in online, request a book, and go [...]