I don’t remember exactly when I met Erin Teagan, but I know it was through SCBWI‘s Mid-Atlantic chapter—either the annual fall…
In a July 2016 article in Toronto’s Metro News, writer Richard Crouse recounts a joke told by world-class cellist Yo-Yo…
In this post by author Kathy Steffen, she talks about “giving your characters accountability.” I thought that was an odd…
How’s this for serendipity? When I met conference keynoter Padma Venkatraman at the James River Writers conference in October 2016,…
This month I attended two writers’ conferences—James River Writers and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Mid-Atlantic Regional—and…
One day when I was about eight years old and a friend’s mom was driving the carpool, she drove off…
What’s an author to do when her latest revision is out with beta readers? I’ve cleaned out a filing cabinet,…
Last month I posted about endings, then tried my own suggestion: I wrote a possible final chapter. Once I had…
Once when I was young and read a novel with a fabulous twist at the end (I’ve forgotten the book,…
This week’s Writing Show, “Editing for Emotional Impact,” presented by James River Writers, was like a cornucopia of craft tips,…