One of my resolutions this year was to read more books than I did last year. Last year, I read 26 books, which is a book every couple weeks. This year, I read 64 books, which is more than a book a week. Not bad for me. There are lots of people who read hundreds — Read More
Spotlight on: M.L. Stedman
If you haven’t read The Light Between Oceans yet, I highly recommend adding it to your Amazon cart. It came out in 2012, so I’m a bit late to this particular party. Shameful confession: I’m never that excited to read historical fiction. I tend to think the characters are going to talk in their old-timey way — Read More
Publishing Journey: The galleys are here!
They’re here, they’re here! Christmas came early. If you’re wondering what the heck a galley is, let me explain. Book galleys (aka “bound galleys”) are the manuscript after it has been copyedited and typeset. It’s definitely not the final copy of the book. As you can see, the cover is not final. And my book — Read More
Spotlight on: Maile Meloy
If you don’t know Maile Meloy yet, you’re missing out. For whatever reason, I didn’t discover her writing until last year. I’ve now read 3 of her works: Liars and Saints (novel), Half in Love (short story collection), and Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It (short story collection). There is something so — Read More
The unknown: Writing when you have no idea what you’re doing
I spent most of this past weekend thinking about my second novel. My plan is to submit synopses and sample chapters for a few novels I’ve written over the last several years, along with some new ideas, to my agent and publisher in the near-ish future. When I created this plan, it sounded reasonable, but — Read More
On finding time to write…and my next book
I’ve written a version of this post a few other times in the past couple years. Why? Because finding time to write is always an issue for me. I assume it’s an issue for most writers. Most of us have a full-time job or kids or both (yikes). I work in advertising, which is fairly — Read More
Publishing Journey: The typeset manuscript (AKA “the first pass”)
Because this is my first book and I’m pretty clueless, every week seems to present some surprise. The latest surprise was an email from my editor’s lovely assistant to say the typeset manuscript (also called the “first pass”) just landed on her desk and she was going to overnight it to me for my review. So, — Read More
Favorite book covers
In honor of the fact that my book has a cover, here are some of my favorite book covers of all time. What are your favorites?
Publishing Journey: I have a cover (and other exciting updates)
After I got my book deal, the #1 question I was asked was, “Do you get to design the cover?” I found this very amusing because I am not artistically inclined AT ALL. Publishing houses have people who design book covers (and thank god for that). Of course, I was a little nervous to see — Read More
Publishing Journey: The Copy Edits
But wait, there’s more! That’s what I was thinking when I opened an email with hundreds of little (but seriously important) copy edits to my manuscript. Thankfully, my publisher has people on staff to make sure I don’t look like a complete idiot. I like to think my spelling and grammar are perfect, but they — Read More