Wait — What If People Actually Read It?
This week, as I’ve laughed at and sympathized with Louise’s and Jennifer’s posts about their publishing fears (or, in the case of Jennifer’s bovinaphobia, non-publishing fears), I’ve wrestled with how...
View ArticleShe Says Tomahto, That Guy Over There Says Tomato: My Experience On Submission
This week we’re talking about our submission process, and what’s been interesting to me is how different each of those processes were. Louise’s path was deceptively easy — she was fortunate enough to...
View ArticleHow Not to Write. How to Write.
I love this topic, because I know so much more about not writing than I do writing. Not writing is easy, and most of us do it all day long, for so many hours that we get very good at it, and I myself...
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The Shit I’m Thankful For: A Poem
What am I thankful for?? Well, first let me tell you what I’m not thankful for, and that’s posting the day after Jennifer, because everything she wrote about public displays of gratitude, saturating...
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Heather’s Favorite Books of 2015
This week, we’re discussing our favorite reads of 2015. Here are mine! THE END OF THE POINT: Finding a writer you love who’s been around for a while is like finding candy in your coat pocket. I picked...
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Envy, the Vast Literary Cognoscenti, and Me
Ah, envy. What a complicated topic, especially for writers. And now comes my turn to examine the green eyed monster. First I have to distinguish envy from jealousy (sorry; writers are word nerds)....
View ArticleThis is My Brain on the Internet
Social media is killing me. It’s rotting my brain from the inside. Not just social media, actually, but the entire internet. That may seem like hyperbole, but right now I’m feeling pretty damned...
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The Evolution of a Title: THE LOST EVANS GIRL SISTERS OF STILLWATER BROKEN...
When you sell your book to a traditional publisher, it quickly becomes apparent that the story you lavished for years with the meticulous attention of a cat licking its fur doesn’t belong wholly to you...
View ArticleThe Politics of Rejection
I’m writing this post while watching live coverage of the New Hampshire primary returns, and as this bizarre passion play unfolds on my television screen I’m struck by how relevant it is to this week’s...
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In Defense of the Luddites
I’m not the youngest girl in the room, but in most things I like to think I’m younger than my age. I’m reasonably fit, and my body doesn’t feel like it’s 50 when I ask it to do things like run or bike...
View ArticleBeing an Author, Not a Writer
Something horrible happened to me the day I became an author: I stopped being a writer. I spent six years working on THE LOST GIRLS. It was the great pleasure of my life, second only to raising my...
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Bad Metaphors and Other Musings on Being Halfway to Publication
It’s halftime in the Big Game and I’m taking a moment to chill in the locker room and reflect on the touchdowns and fumbles of the first half in what is possibly the worst football metaphor ever....
View ArticleWho’s Your Role Model? A Long Overdue Homework Assignment
When my kids were in elementary school, every couple of years they’d get an assignment that asked, “Who’s your role model?” I always wanted them to pick me. Me, their mother. The one who wiped their...
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The Five Things I Can’t Stop Talking About
This week’s topic is “favorite things”, but since Louise and Jennifer already wrote clever lists of favorite things, I’m not going to do that. I hate to compete in games I know I’m going to lose. It’s...
View ArticleOwning What My Book Says About Me, and Denying What it Does Not
I’ve heard it said that all writing is autobiographical. Even if you’re not writing the true story of your own life, the assumption goes, you’re inflicting your life experiences on the people you make...
View ArticleThe Memory of Water
THE LOST GIRLS was born of water. Not just any water, but the very particular lake water of my childhood. I first saw the ocean as a teenager, and its grandeur made me so dizzy it knocked me off my...
View ArticleA Woman of Letters
When I was a young lawyer fresh out of law school, I was one of ten women in a class of forty incoming associates at a large law firm. On weekends, the male associates got invited for golf outings with...
View ArticleHell, Yes, I Have Regrets
I confess: I’m jealous of Louise and Jenny, with their nonexistent and paltry lists of regrets. Because I do have regrets. Not so much on the real life side of the equation, where I share their...
View ArticleFeeding the Muse a Cookie
This week I’m confronted by a topic that doesn’t bear much relationship to what I write: food. Unlike Jennifer’s MODERN GIRLS, with its evocative descriptions of traditional shabbat meals, or the baked...
View ArticleThe Two Kinds of Story
John Gardner, the author of one of the greatest craft books of all time, THE ART OF FICTION, once said there are only two kinds of stories in the world: “a person goes on an adventure” or “a stranger...
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