The West Virginia Book Festival, 13, passed away this week in Charleston after an unfortunate series of events. It is survived by the thousands of writers, readers and general book enthusiasts who cherished it, including visitors like Nicholas Sparks, Charlaine Harris, Dave Pelzer and Matthew Aaron Browning. Details about its untimely death can be found here and here. Condolences may be left in the comment field below.
“I hate writing. I love having written.” – Dorothy Parker Winter has been quite the emotional roller coaster for this scribe. My first novel, Straightville, U.S.A., hasn’t found a publishing home yet, and a recent pass from a promising editor had me ready to throw my laptop off the roof. Meanwhile, after churning out 50,000 words of my second novel during November’s National Novel Writing Month, the manuscript was weak at best and not getting any stronger. Between allowing myself…
I was recently asked to participate in an interview with the blog Underneaththis. It was a first for me, being interviewed as an author. Actually, being interviewed period outside of a job hunt. I'm much more used to being the interviewer. In my "other" life, I am a communications director. As part of that role, I produced and hosted a TV series on local television from 2007 to 2013. Over the course of six years, we produced 51 episodes, and I was in the…
"The easiest thing to do on earth is not write." – William Goldman Last weekend, I was bound and determined to devote two solid days to writing and nothing but writing! And, boy, did I give it the good ol’ college try. I sat down at my desk, opened my manuscript and stared at the screen. My characters were there, in the scene, just waiting to be directed. But what did I get? Basically, this… I tried all my usual…
“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.” – Albert Einstein At the end of my last post, where I told you the story of how I became a client of Stephen Fraser at JDLA, I eluded to something else special that happened the same day. To fully appreciate it, we must first visit my writing roots and the sources of inspiration that propelled me into pursuing it as a career. My…
In August 2012, I signed with the Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency in New York. Once people hear such news about a writer, which they often do because that writer is going on and on about it to anyone who’ll listen, they generally want to know how it happened, especially if they too are an aspiring writer. In fact, that very question is the frequent subject of Chuck Sambuchino’s “Guide to Literary Agents” blog from Writer’s Digest. Today, I thought I’d…
Harold and Maude. Ashton and Demi. Hugh Hefner and, well, just about anybody. Ah, the May-December romance, that fervent dance between spring chicken and old crow. But when does an age gap become a chasm? Here’s one theory: “In May-December romances, age gaps are okay, but generation gaps are a really bad idea.” (That’s from Oprah’s website, so it may as well be chiseled into a stone tablet, no? I should just stop right here and be done.) But seriously,…
I live in West Virginia. I live in a state where it is still legal to fire someone because of their sexual orientation, or evict them from a rental property or a hotel room for the same reason. I live in a state where gay marriage is not legal and, let’s face it, probably won’t be for some time. But I also live in a state that, during a visit from those Westboro Baptist Church folks, saw gay people and…
I’m not a very fast reader. I really admire people like this guy, who can not only manage to take in hundreds of books a year, but also seem to remember a little something about them. I tend to consume and inadvertently forget. I was asked today what I’m currently reading, followed up by a comment that this person plans to read a book a week in 2013. I love the thought, but know better than to add that to…
A quick update: It's been quiet here on the blog for awhile. For the past several weeks, I've been trudging through editorial hell. When I reviewed the manuscript I hurriedly compiled during NaNoWriMo, I loved the premise and the characters I've created but something else was very…off. I have since begun shifting the entire narrative mode, a rather tedious process that has me feeling a little like Blanche Devereaux in this clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54y-Mjxz9vw And I'm only halfway through the manuscript. On the…