I’m flipping through the notebook from my novel-writing studio this semester led by James Sallis. Just pages and pages of scrawled notes. Some of them are marked with asterisks. I put those by the bits of Sallis Wisdom I especially …
SCBWI NY: Jacqueline Woodson, Libba Bray
You know when you go somewhere and have a mind-blowing experience and then you get back home and you try to tell others about it and everything you say falls short of what you experienced? Yeah. That’s how I’ve felt …
Twelve Posts on Writing, Day 12: Always new, always learning
I’m sitting at a cafe with Jim Sallis. We’re eating oatmeal, drinking coffee, talking about writing. We’re both working hard to finish our current novels. He’s had 12 novels published and won a bunch of awards and had lots of …
Twelve Posts on Writing, Day 11: Break my heart! (Please?)
On my bookshelf I have a copy of (Not that You Asked) by Steve Almond. After chatting a bit with him, he inscribed some of his rules for writing on the flyleaf. The second rule he wrote is: “Slow down …
Twelve Posts on Writing, Day Ten: Be the sensitive type
A while back, I was writing a scene in which my protagonist is given a choice. I made that choice for her, assuming I knew best. I wrote along my merry way, into the next chapter, la-la-laaaa… The story slowed. …