I am finishing my preparations for the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference and–like every year–I am getting fluttery with excitement. I’m polishing up two projects this time (you can read about them under my “books” tab) and I feel like I’m scrambling around helping two young ladies dress for the ball. The only problem with … Read More
If you have followed my blog for very long, you know that I am a huge fan of the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference held each year over the Palm Sunday weekend. I’m preparing for my third conference this year. Yesterday, I popped onto the Mount Hermon blog to check out a new post and … Read More
For those budding writers out there, here is a deal you absolutely should NOT miss. I’ve been letting you know about freebies offered on Amazon for Kindle readers, and this is one of the best. Writing coach Randy Ingermanson (a.k.a. the “Snowflake Guy”) has put together some of his best writing tips in the book Writing … Read More
I spent last week at an amazing writers retreat (hosted by Books&Such Literary Agency) in beautiful Monterey, California. It was exciting to sit around with other authors and discuss publishing, publicity, social networking and how to connect with your readers. As a still-yet-unpublished writer, I found this a bit overwhelming, but also a fantastic glimpse of what is … Read More
Tension headaches, tension in relationships, tense meetings, tense conversations — we all hate it. Right? Can tension be good? A tense fishing line means a good catch. I know my seldom-used sewing machine has a tension adjustment knob — I’m not sure what it does, but it must be important. Tension is not only good in story-writing — it … Read More
Today I will continue my series on Common Writing Mistakes Made by New Writers (Like me) with “Beginning with Chapter One.” If you want to catch up on the other posts (in no particular order), read Back Up the Dump Truck, Battling Backstory, Talking to Yourself, and Couch Potato Characters. Today’s common writing mistake is … Read More
Last week, I started a series about mistakes commonly made by new writers (like me). The first entry focused on “information dumps.” Today, I’m going to discuss a related topic — backstory. Every character has history and we try often try to share every detail of it in the first chapter. You must know that she was born on a stormy … Read More
Over the next few weeks, I am going to post about some of the common mistakes that new writers make and how you can avoid them in your writing. Please send me any writing questions that you have and maybe I can direct a post toward your area of interest. These are not in any paticular order of importance, … Read More
Tomorrow I head home from the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference, exhausted and exhilarated. I have made some great connections with agents and publishers and now I get to go home and do some hard work. I had two different industry professionals express interest in seeing more of my manuscript. I’m walking on air. For … Read More
Today was another fantastic day at the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference 2010. I woke up way too early (4 AM) because my room had been invaded by a mouse that seemed desperate to eat a fiber one bar wrapper that I had dropped in my trash can. Here are some other highlights: We had a … Read More