Always a Silver Lining… The Upside of the Great Pager Swap Fiasco

If you read my last post, you might think the Great Pager Swap 2009 was all hassle and no payoff. But you’d be mistaken. I have an unpredictable schedule that can keep me away from a computer for big chunks of time. I also have in-laws with dial-up whom we visit frequently. Like every other [...]

U Got the Look: Novel Marketing and Prom Ensembles

Well, Prom season is upon us. You may wonder what the heck that has to do with marketing a novel. Well, I’ll tell you. But first, I’d like to introduce this into evidence: That’s me (with my sister) on my way to the prom circa 1992. Now, if you’re like me, after looking at this [...]

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Quarterfinalist

I feel like the father on A Christmas Story: “I’ve won a major award!” If you’re the sort of folk who reads my blog, you are probably well acquainted with the ABNA contest. For 2009, Amazon accepted up to 10,000 entries of finished novels in February. They narrowed the entries down to 2,000  on the [...]

A Thought on Rejections…

I believe I’ve finally settled on the proposal that works best for The Edge of Memory.  But Holly Root’s post on the new Waxman Agency blog today reminded me of how the query process started for me and for several writing buddies.  If there’s one thing that comes up over and over again when discussing [...]

Back on the Chain Gang: Genres

My Blog Chain Gang is back at it again and our new topic is Genres. We’ve had to skip over one blogger who’s moving, so the previous post from Elana Johnson is here. If you’ve followed my blog, you know that Genre has been a hot topic over here on Trying to Do the Write [...]

Everything I Needed To Know About Publishing I Learned From Willy Wonka

Well, that title is a bit misleading… I’m new to writing and publishing and don’t know “everything I need to know” by a long stretch. The inspiration for this blog post came when a quote from Willy Wonka popped into my head and seemed to fit my quest for publication. “There’s a hundred billion people [...]

What I’ve Learned, Part III

This is tangentially related to Part II. When in doubt, err on the side of making it easy to contact you. A few months ago, I attended a lecture on “What to Do After ‘The End’” by author Sean Chercover. When asked what he would do differently if he was seeking agent representation today, he [...]

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

It’s hard to believe it’s been a month already since What I’ve Learned, Part One. So, Time for Part Two: Read the Directions. I know this seems too obvious to bother pointing out. Specifically, it reminds me of one of the most major verbal ass-kickings I survived as a child. When I was in fourth [...]

Perfecting a Pitch Blurb

Kristin Nelson rocks. Seriously. I attended her workshop on Query Pitch Blurbs at the Chicago-North RWA Spring Fling. Using her suggestions, I crafted a query letter and sent out an equery on Monday night. Tuesday afternoon, I got a request for a partial. She has been blogging on the same topic. Well worth reading. You [...]

My Pitch for The Edge of Memory

Warning! The following post is slightly spoilerific. So you’ll have to click “continue” to read it. In case you read about my first agent meeting and wondered what my 60-second pitch was…

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 [...]

My First Conference: Chicago RWA Spring Fling

Well, here I sit on break from my very first writing conference. A surreal experience to say the least. After working up a vigorous lather of panic and caffeine this morning, I arrived at the Spring Fling conference muttering my 60-second pitch to myself and trying not to puke. Much ado about nothing, like most [...]