I've been so overwhelmed by our move and the ongoing stress of trying to get our Austin-area house ready to sell that I haven't been blogging or writing much, though I have been reading blogs and writing boards, etc ( Read more... )

Hey, writers... how do you get to know your characters ( Read more... )

Yesterday I went to an Austin SCBWI meeting and heard Helen Hemphill give a great talk on plotting novels. Very helpful info! She's also leading a plot workshop at the Highlights Foundation next month. It was quite a packed-out meeting, too, with more than 70 writers in attendance! While there, I picked up a packet of the 34 manuscripts that are ( Read more... )

Probably sparked by the 24-hour short story contest I entered last weekend, I became Obsessive Writer Woman in the past day! Last night I checked the web site of The First Line, a literary magazine I was published in four years ago. They have story submission deadlines on a quarterly basis, and each quarter's submissions must start with the same ( Read more... )

1) My toddler did great at the Parents' Night Out the other night! He even seemed to like it! He was there 4 hours, and the worker was sad to see him go because she said he had such a great laugh!

2) Because of that, we got to go on a real date, without kids, for the first time in 18 months!!! (Technically the second time, but the first time we ( Read more... )

 When I have two novels that need to be revised and a third that's only about 1/3 written, the last thing I need to be thinking about is another of my old novel projects. Regardless, the novel I started in 2000, which I still consider a pet project even though I never got more than 12,000 words in, kept swirling around in my head last night. I ( Read more... )

Two more workshop participants have blogged about it: Shana Burg and April Lurie.

Meanwhile, I was going to read my middle grade novel again, now that I've let it sit for a week and a half, but I couldn't find the printout! Oops. It's got to be around here somewhere (my son read it), but I didn't feel like reading it on the computer or printing 144 ( Read more... )

I still haven't come down from the high of the Awesome Austin Writers' Workshop this past weekend (see my entry about that), or recovered completely from my whole insane past week, which also included finishing a novel draft, getting my first-ever cat, getting major car repairs, and doing a whirlwind job of interviewing people and writing my ( Read more... )

I spent three intense but wonderful days this past weekend at the "Awesome Austin Writers' Workshop" hosted by Cynthia Leitich Smith and Greg Leitich Smith, mostly at their home with the exception of a party at Helen Hemphill's fabulous downtown Austin loft. This involved 25 to 30 writers, in-depth critiques, and excellent food and conversation. I ( Read more... )

I am thrilled that my monthly freelance article is coming together as well as it is this month. It was nearly painless getting the information. I didn't get writer's block like I did the previous two months (which probably has to do with all the other writing I've been doing lately). And all 7 businesses I requested photos from (the worst part of ( Read more... )