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,…
This month, I caught up with Ruta Sepetys, recently home from a two-month book tour for her latest…
People often ask writers: where do you get the ideas for your stories? And I say: ideas. Blah. So overrated.…
When I was a student in the MFA program at Vermont College of Fine Arts, I heard Jane Kurtz, the…
Last week, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley won the Newbery Honor Award for her middle grade novel, The War that Saved my Life, and just this…
My brother-in-law emailed me a quote from Richard Rohr, and I printed it on a scrap of paper, taped it above…
For months I’ve been trying to find the right opening for the novel I started in 2013, and I think…
The Halfway House for Writers is a book I’ll read again. And again. And again. Like Anne Lamott’s Bird by…
Over this past summer, friends gave me these comments on the draft of a new YA novel: “I’m confused here. Are the…