A while back, fellow VCFA alum Lindsey Lane asked if I had a favorite quote about writing—and I did—and in…
The blank page glares at me. Stark. Judging. Waiting for brilliance, not blather. The pressure is almost unbearable. First there…
At the mid-Atlantic SCBWI conference last month, keynoter Han Nolan said, “When a story scares me so much that I…
This past Saturday while speaking on a panel at the James River Writers Conference, I choked up and found myself…
The smoky odor from a too-hot furnace…a hint of honeysuckle…the racket of bullfrogs—these were the details that brought last week’s…
While I was drafting this post, my son peered over my shoulder, and said, “Mom, TL:DR: too long; didn’t read.”…
Last month a young woman told me she was pursuing a PhD in children’s literature instead of an MFA because…
In mid-March, as I staffed the James River Writers (JRW) table at the Virginia Festival of the Book in Charlottesville,…