Call me a romantic, but I tend to read more poetry near Valentine’s Day. Lately, I have read lovely, lyrical, romantic poetry. The kind that touches your soul and makes you want to curl up under a blanket by a fire, and count the snowflakes outside the window. Recently, it has occurred to me that poetry parallels life. What if we lived our lives in the same way we read poetry: slowly, thoughtfully, authentically, purposefully? Poetry is not to communicate information. It is to give us a sense and a perception of life. It is not to tell us about experience… Continue reading

Deadline is a word that always pushes my heart to maximum velocity. "Dead" conveys severe penalties, perhaps ultimate ones. "Line," an invisible mark of  digital clocks that if watched click, click, click away the day, the week, the . . .  I've made my point. The problem is most of our lives are controlled by this word. I'm thinking "taxes" at the moment. Writers work on deadlines all the time: submissions, revisions, galleys, contests, conferences, blog posts. Then there's the "other part of life:" family birthdays, home maintenance, groceries, hair. Last year with my debut novel, my calendar looked a lot… Continue reading

There were a lot more than 13, but, uh, well . . . I'm on this 13-thing, so I'll stick with it and only choose those tips I think were hot. 1. Betsy Birney on school visits: Be sure students are prepped for your visit. Nothing worse than to arrive in front of a classroom filled with kids who don't who you are or anything about your book(s). 2. Another Betsy Birney tip: If possible make sure the teacher and the librarian are looking forward to your visit. Avoid interesting complications. 3. Elizabeth Law likes funny MG fiction. 4. Buy a Flip Video to… Continue reading

I’ve been thinking a lot about branding lately. Not the kind of branding that involves cows and red-hot iron rods (although we were just in Texas), but the kind of branding that defines you to your audience. Quick—if I say Sarah Dessen, what kind of books do you think of? Yep, contemporary fiction with a romantic bent. Neil Gaiman? Slightly-scary fantasy. R.L. LaFevers? Adventure, ancient curses and feisty girls (if you haven’t read any of the Theodosia books, shut down the computer and go get one now…we’ll wait). These authors all have a strong brand—pick up a book and you… Continue reading

For much of my childhood, we were a household of females. My mom, my sister and I lived in a house where nobody left the seat up, most of the dirty clothes actually made it into the hamper and nobody knew how to make realistic machine-gun sounds or burp the alphabet on cue. We also read a lot. Fate now smirks when she sees me, as I am the only female in a house full of males – even the dog and both of the cats are boys. The presence of several Y chromosomes in my life has made me… Continue reading