Whew! I finished Draft 1.1 of my MG spies-and-fairies book on Wednesday, and I heard from my lovely agent today that she likes it! Double-WHEW. :) I am feeling so happy and relieved right now ( Read more... )

For years, I was a cellphone Luddite. It took me forever to get a cellphone in the first place, and even longer to start giving people my number. But even after that, I kept on buying cheap pay-as-you-go cellphones, long after all of my friends had smartphones ( Read more... )

Hurrah! I finished my romantic YA gothic fantasy novelette at last! "House of Secrets" (a veeery tentative working title) is about 12,000 words, and I wrote the last line last night, which felt deeply satisfying. This is my birthday week - I'll turn 38 in a few days - and it's nice to have finished something new just beforehand ( Read more... )

Ohhh, writer-brain. I spent the last week or so getting more and more panicked about the fact that I didn't have any sparkly, compelling ideas for a new novel to write. (And it had been, like, almost two whole weeks since I'd finished revising the last one!) Then this morning I woke up with 2-1/2 new novel ideas all jostling for position in my head ( Read more... )

Oof. It's been a slightly frantic few days between one thing and another - most of them having to do with MrD's school year coming to an end and me trying to do All The Things beforehand! Er, as you might be able to guess...that attempt really isn't working out so well. Oh well! At least, by the time he's finished with school, I really should have ( Read more... )

Our weekend away in London turned out to be fabulous - see Patrick's blog entry for the exact, roaring reasons why (Mr D was in heaven!) - and in a really lovely surprise, my story "Clasp Hands" was published at Daily Science Fiction a week earlier than I'd expected. You can read it here. I hope you enjoy it!

And I've been tagged by the fabulous ( Read more... )

Over on the Girls Heart Books blog, I'm blogging today about one of the silliest and yet most effective writing aids I know: inspirational figurines!

You can read the full entry here (and I'd love to read any comments either there or here).

I've never, ever been an outliner for any of my writing - but, surprise surprise, different projects turn out to require different techniques. As I get ready to launch into my big Family Magic rewrite, I've been really struggling to figure out HOW to approach it - and it finally occurred to me that outlining, for once (for me), might hold the ( Read more... )

I'm in the middle of intense revision madness right now, which means - as my poor family can attest - that I'm alternately grouchy, weepy, or exhilarated, depending on how the rewrite is going from hour to hour. I'm also going to be even slower than usual about replying to emails, etc., until after I turn in the rewrite (in 2 weeks). (And maybe for ( Read more... )

Over at the Smack Dab in the Middle MG Writers' Blog, I'm writing about my own personal Spring Break, which is coming up next week! (I. Can't. Wait!)

You can read the full blog entry here, and I'd love to read any comments from you guys. Do you have any personal trips or rewards of your own coming up? Or, if you don't: which ones do you fantasize ( Read more... )