2010 is five-sixths of the way over, and already it’s the kind of year that has me counting toward its demise in fractions. It’s been the toughest year of my adult life. Not everything that’s happened this year has been awful. In fact, I’ve made lots of new friendships, developed new skills, and invested time… Continue reading Comfort books: Sucking your thumb and reaching for your blankie
Blog
Traveling through novels
First off, I’m really sorry for the two-week silence on the blog. One of my colleagues went to Pakistan for a month to help get relief supplies to people displaced by the floods, and I took on a lot of her normal work, so I haven’t had much time to do anything else. (Fortunately she’s… Continue reading Traveling through novels
How to fall in love with your novel again
Like any long-term relationship, your relationship with your novel will go through its ups and downs. There’ll be times you think it’s the best thing you’ve ever done, and times when you’ll feel like setting your computer alight to make sure no one can ever read the file. I’ve hit both ends of this spectrum… Continue reading How to fall in love with your novel again
Speaking of accents
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the difficulties involved in writing characters who don’t have the same accent you do. In that post, I wrote that one of my biggest pet peeves is “dialecty” words, which especially seem to plague Scottish characters. Yesterday, Jane at Dear Author prompted a great discussion on the same… Continue reading Speaking of accents
Why my novel is more like my husband than my child
I often hear writers refer to their creations as their babies, and fret about sending them out into the world to be judged and possibly ridiculed. I can understand the analogy, since a novel is a deeply important part of you that somehow takes on its own life. My relationship with my novel, though, is… Continue reading Why my novel is more like my husband than my child