Straight talk from the sisters about blood, sweat and ink
I reported last week that I’m taking a writing class, billed as “intermediate level” but after two meetings I’ve concluded that most of the participants are newbies. It’s forced me to reflect on how I wound up as a writer: a former science teacher/administrator who became possessed by the sudden and uncontrollable urge to write …
Continue reading “Fiction as Art: Going Back to the Beginning”
As you know, I recently relocated from New York to Virginia and as is the case when most people move, I was looking for new opportunities to meet people, especially since I miss my evenings at the coffee shop with my old writer group and mostly communicate with them via computer. Luckily, I found this …
Continue reading “Moody Musings…”
I’m in the final stages of polishing my latest manuscript and going through my checklist for those tiny little nits that always manage to slip through. Rather than doing a complete read-through for like the millionth time (which at some point becomes counter-productive because you know it too well), I pick random passages and scrutinize …
Continue reading “Self-Editing Redux: Spot Checking”
As summer ends and thoughts of autumn come to mind I take a page from Heather’s blog. Having worked in the education field for thirty-three years and been a student for nearly my entire life before that, I always think of September as a time of beginnings. I’ve just finished a new novel and know …
Continue reading “Writing the Perfect Query, Again”
I’ve just completed a new project and something’s been niggling at me. It’s set in The Hamptons, a well-known playground for the rich and famous. Specifically, the town of East Hampton, generally considered to be the “Best Hampton” (Sorry, Southampton) as opposed to where I used to live, Westhampton, described on the TV show, Royal …
Continue reading “Libelous Liabilities”
I awoke the other morning at around eight and my pulse rate instantly spiked. No, I wasn’t having sex, nor had I just awakened from a night terror, I’d simply flicked on the Today Show. My pulse usually languishes for about an hour or so because I never seem to be able to drag my …
Continue reading “The Anti-Feminism Movement: Confusing the Issues”
Last week I wrote about the vitality that male crit partners bring to your writing process. I admitted to my prejudices, that I thought men were mostly into political thrillers, sports biographies, and the like, and hinted that I was shocked to discover how many men were avid readers of romance novels; and a significant …
Continue reading “Trashing Romance Novels: Why?”
The hot topic the past few weeks at WOS has been critique groups/partners and it’s made me think about mine. I’ve had many these past years. Some are writers like myself, while others are friends and family, more of what I would consider beta readers. As I reflected on these relationships, I realized that I’ve …
Continue reading “Men as Crit Partners: The Male POV”
The topic of Point of View came up among The Sisters this week and I decided to take a closer look at this important literary device. Point of view is the lens through which the writer (or the narrator voice) tells the story. Think of it as the lens in a movie camera, standing back …
Continue reading “Point of View: When Your Voice is Not Your Own”
Nancy Drew had a huge influence on my growth as a young woman, and something I’d totally overlooked until recently. A number of powerful and successful women have cited her as a role model, and in the 1950s, something we sorely needed. I can show you excerpts from Home Economics text books encouraging us to …
Continue reading “The Secret Ghosts of Nancy Drew”