Category: Blog

While listening to a Hawthorn and Horowitz audiobook, my brain stumbled on the writing and fell out of the story. Anthony Horowitz had written a sentence using the same word twice. This is a curious but common pattern among writers. Jennifer A. Nielsen once wrote, “Mott strode across our long room in less than a…

How difficult can it be to write a children’s book? No problem! I wrote a few scenarios, joined SCBWI, went to conferences, took classes, joined a writers’ group, wrote, wrote, wrote. I wrote fourteen middle grade novels, of which I thought maybe three or four were worthy of more than the recycle bin. I did…

Many words and phrases have nothing to contribute to communication. Some of my blogs will feature such words and phrases to identify them and suggest writers use them less often. “That said…” [My favorite, the one that bothers me most, along with its many variations: that being said, having said that, or just saying.] Who…

“Every step toward your dreams fulfills a sacred obligation.” — Pilar Gerasimo Dreams of Writing When I consider my life and my dreams, the only thing that consistently rings in my head and heart is to write. As I child, when I learned to play piano and guitar, I wrote songs. If I tried story-writing,…

At a softball tournament recently, I saw this advice proudly displayed on the back of a t-shirt: NEVER LET STRIKING OUT KEEP YOU FROM PLAYING THE GAME I felt discouraged. My batting average was (and still is) exactly zero. Since I began sending queries, I have accumulated about a hundred and fifty “strikeouts.” Most disappointing…

Last month a friend asked if I was ready for this next BIG step of putting myself out there. The question gave me pause and, naturally, I spent time in the library reading about fear of failure and fear of success and what holds us back from achieving our potential. What I discovered is that…