Posts Tagged ‘fiction writing’
The Mistake So Many Self-Published Authors Make
I sat in the Opium Den this morning, studying the revision letter my editor sent me about my twenty-first novel, The Good Father, which will be published next spring. As usual, my editor had a bunch of suggestions and I could see that she was right on target on every point except one (and she…
Read MoreThe Agony and Ecstacy of Synopsis Writing
Remember my new idea? The one that came to me so perfectly formed that I knew the book would write itself? Well, it may be true that the book will write itself, but the synopsis is another matter altogether. A good synopsis is incredibly important. Even if you’ve already written your book, you will still…
Read MoreJoin Me for the Second 'Story Weekend'!
I was delighted with the response to my first Story Weekend last weekend! I’m so glad you enjoyed sharing your thoughts and hope you’ll join me in doing so again. We’re still in the experimenting stage, so I’m sticking to my three rules: The story must be true. Try to keep it under 100 words. That’s…
Read MoreHow Old is the Stuff in YOUR Kitchen?
Please walk into your kitchen. Now open the cupboard where you keep your spices and pull out the dingiest container. How old is it? I bet I have you beat! Here I am in my very first grown-up kitchen, making a not very grown-up face at the photographer (check out those eyebrows!) Location: Berkeley, California.…
Read MoreWinning Cover for The Escape Artist E-book
Thank you for all your votes! I tallied up the votes both here and on Facebook and this image is the clear winner with 34 votes. Second place was the little boy peering over the woman’s shoulder (24), which I have to admit fits the book very well, but one reader mentioned that the little…
Read MoreYou Never Sausage a Book!
You know how people say they don’t want to watch sausage being made? Well, I feel as though I invited you, my readers, to watch the writing equivalent of sausage making as you followed my painful progression through the creation of The Midwife’s Confession. It began a long time ago, when after a couple of months of…
Read MoreThe Writer's Brain is a Weird and Exhausting Thing
A few nights ago when I was getting ready for bed, I had a nighty-night pill and my earplugs waiting for me on my nightstand. Not thinking, I reached for an earplug and my bottle of water, catching myself when I had the earplug an inch from my mouth (which is much better than the…
Read MoreDogged by Research
Dang, Shelties are cute, aren’t they? My two furry babies, who are sitting next to me on the sofa as I type this, certainly think so. But to the topic of this post. I love research. My favorite teacher in high school, Mrs. Westphal (who seemed about 100 years old to me, but was probably about…
Read MoreThe Final Draft (sort of)
I’m often asked how many drafts I write when I’m working on a book. The answer: a lot. I finished my next novel, tentatively titled The Lies We Told, last week, and thought I’d show you the stack of drafts the writing generated. In my left hand, of course, I’m holding the nice, neat perfectly…
Read MoreSneak Peek at Breaking the Silence Cover
Breaking the Silence will be reissued in December, and I thought you might like a sneak peek at the cover my publisher is working on for it. There’s a lot going on in this story, as there usually is in my books: a mute little girl, an old woman with…
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