All Flung Out: Chicago NRWA Spring Fling

Well, I’m back to my regularly scheduled doctorhood today. I got in late last night and I’m working a 24+ hour shift today. So I didn’t have a chance to finish blogging about the conference. Wow. What a crazy, wonderful experience that was! Saturday, I drove in early for more workshops. I had a great [...]

Genre-Crossing and The Edge of Memory

I have struggled a bit with developing the pitch for my novel, since it doesn’t fit easily into a single category. I had lunch with an English teacher friend who’s just finished reading and asked her what she thought about genres. “Well, it’s sort of a romantic, psychological thriller,” she said. “With paranormal elements.” She [...]

What I’ve learned about writing a novel and trying to publish, part one.

I am admittedly an utter newbie to this whole process, so I’m no expert. But in medicine, the philosophy is “See one. Do one. Teach one.” As soon as you learn something, you pass on the knowledge to those behind you on the learning curve. And, you don’t find the words “Academic Director” in your [...]

The Edge of Memory Cards for Writing Conference

In my continued quest to figure out how to get published, I’ve been researching writing conferences. The Chicago Spring Fling conference I’m attending at the end of this month is sneaking up on me faster than I’d expected. In addition to cooking up a verbal pitch, I’ve read that I also need to prepare business [...]

If you were looking for jugglers, I’d have been a juggler.

Well, I am dangerously close to trying to query. I’ve picked out 5 agents to start with. I’ve researched them and composed letters for each one. But I still struggle with what to call my book. I honestly think it could be marketed in a number of different ways, and I’m not sure which is [...]

I R Editing… a smidge, anyway.

So, I’ve been searching the internet for a good definition of women’s fiction. The category seems to be a bit vague, really, other than that it should appeal to women. So, with that nebulous information, I’ve decided to enter a contest in the category of “Women’s Fiction with Romantic Elements”. At the very least, someone [...]

Agent Secrets

I spent a large chunk of today looking up information on literary agents. I am starting to really itch to work on the editing, and I know I am still too close to the material to edit well yet, so I am channeling my energy into researching the publishing process instead. It is a crazy [...]