I admit it. I'm a NaNoWriMo virgin. But I'm putting it out there this time around, hoping that the community and the deadline will give me a little extra momentum as I try to get this next YA banged out. I've resisted in the past primarily because I was already well into a project and making steady progress. This time, however, I could use a ( Read more... )

You hear it all the time: "Writing and publishing a book is a marathon not a sprint." What I would like to know is...Is this a 5k, a 10k, or a 20k run? I don't want to be a nattering nabob, but I feel as though I've hit that wall more than once, and I'm wondering if I have that second wind that everyone talks about. Don't get me wrong. I have ( Read more... )

I was doing my usual blog rounds today, when I got a wonderful reminder about the reality of our artistic passion and our place in the world as writers. Thank you, Rachelle Gardner, for putting things in perspective so succinctly and so clearly. Seriously, folks, how often do you hear yourself saying, "How did that piece of crap get published ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

Wednesday Night, I had a thrill...my first speaking engagement as a writer. No, I'm not published, yet. No, I'm not even remotely famous-or infamous-yet. And quite frankly, there is no real reason anyone should care what I have to say about anything. But I am a writer.

Yep, there it is. I AM A WRITER.

It began with an unexpected phone call ( Read more... )

...And some of us have a lot more experience than others! An amazing man shared these words of wisdom, as many of you may already know. I never met Randy Pausch, but even from a distance, his spirit has touched me ( Read more... )

...And some of us have a lot more experience than others! An amazing man shared these words of wisdom, as many of you may already know. I never met Randy Pausch, but even from a distance, his spirit has touched me ( Read more... )

UPDATE: This evening we got a call and an offer from Arkansas. We still have a few more irons to turn in the fire before we make a decision, but at least we have on option open. Let's hope there will be more. Well, we have returned to Indiana, a little road weary and a lot confused. Arkansas is beautiful, and the Bentonville area is a wonderful ( Read more... )

The kids (and the dogs) are safely ensconced with Grandma & Grandpa in Indiana, and we arrived in Arkansas just after dinner time. It's been quite a trip so far--beautiful scenery and LOUS's (I'll explain this in another post). But can you believe, as we are driving somewhere through Illinois (or maybe Missouri), we check the messages on the ( Read more... )

As my spirits sink to a gut-wrenching new low in the face of destitution, I come across Laurie halseanderson's blog challenge--to write at least 15 minutes each day for the next 21 days. And that brought back her fabulously inspirational talk at the SCBWI Fall Philly last September. She was wading through quite a lot of crap at different times, too, but she ( Read more... )