A couple of weeks ago, author Jane Ward and I celebrated the launch of her new novel, Should Have Told You Sooner, at Jabberwocky Bookshop. One of the
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What’s So Bad about Being a Ghostwriter?
I just finished reading Jillian Cantor’s new novel, The Fiction Writer. It’s one of those entertaining novels that plays fast-and-loose with a classic
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The Art of Revising a Book
Recently, I stayed in an Airbnb where someone had tied the top tissues of all of the Kleenex boxes into bows. My first instinct was to laugh because
Read MoreWriting through Panic
Back in early March, before it felt like we were trapped in a lousy cinematic mashup of Chernobyl, Contagion, and Zombieland, I was on a writing
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Ragdale: The Delights of Having a Room of One’s Own
From the moment I first declared myself a novelist in my twenties, there were doubters. My father, for starters. “You'll never make a living. Why
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How to Write Historical Fiction about a Guy Some People Love to Hate: Author Anne Easter Smith Dishes about Her New Novel
For the past three years, I've been writing (and rewriting, and tearing my hair out over, and rewriting again) my first work of historical fiction, a
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Why Is That Book Taking You So Long?
Recently, one of my writing students asked for advice on how she should structure her novel. “I already have fifty pages and I don't know
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10 Ways to Blow Up Your Wobbly Book and Put It Back Together Again
Congratulations to everyone who took part in NaNoWriMo! Whether you made it to the finish line or not, we probably all have this in common after
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Why Keep Writing?
It's easy to give up on your writing. Whether you're working on a novel, a memoir, a short story, or an article, writing is hard. Not
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