The eternally-wise "they" say that you get rejected 99 times before you get a buy in on your novel or submitted piece of work. But even knowing this intellectually, getting a pass on a manuscript still sucks. For me, the first couple were a particular drag. It's like getting dumped after the first date. On … Continue reading Query Rejections
After spending a few years playing around with the idea of writing fantasy (and then writing several fantasy manuscripts that I wound up shelving) I decided to go all in with contemporary YA. I knew by the first outline that I was a stronger writer in contemporary YA, I'm going to credit (blame?) my first … Continue reading Fantasy vs. Contemporary
I've spent the last three weeks off my routine and it's been driving me crazy. I've always been a morning person, preferring to go to bed early and wake up early. Even in high school and college, assignments were completed in the pre-dawn hours, and this was before I liked coffee. The ever-shifting hours of … Continue reading This Writer’s Routine
When I decided to go to the 2019 Writer's Digest conference, it was 95% due to their Pitch Slam event. If you are unfamiliar with conference pitching events, they're basically a supplemental feature to a writing conference where writers get a very short amount of time to pitch their work to agents who are open to considering … Continue reading The Writer’s Digest Conference Pitch Slam Experience
I write things constantly that the blog gets neglected. Sorry!
As I am currently unrepresented by an agent and editor-less, I have to establish my own deadlines. Here's why this is a challenge: I started my career in news, which consisted of constant deadlines from like, 50 sources. By the time I left news for good a few years ago, I seriously had not ever … Continue reading Deadlines and Due Dates
The first draft of my latest attempt at a novel has (among others) the following characters: A black school shooting survivor A sikh young man A transgender young man A person with Tourtette's Syndrome A domestic violence survivor A hispanic woman with a PhD A lesbian A gay man A black man in the military … Continue reading Writing Marginalized Groups
