National Novel Writing Month
on Oct 29, 2009 in nanowrimo National Novel Writing Month writing Can you write 50,000 words in 30 days?You can find out if you try National Novel Writing Month.Call it nanowrimo for short. The folks who started the crazy enterprise say it is, "A fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begi...

Found jump drive -- Lessons Learned
on Oct 13, 2009Efforts to find jump drive: On Monday, leave work early; go to scene of the incident (cafe and market); ask staff about jump drive; look around; be annoying to other customers; put up flyers on bulletin boards, flyers include picture...

Lost Jump Drive
on Oct 12, 2009 in thumb drive jump drive flash drive storage device writing They go by lots of names: jump, flash, or thumb drives. They are easy to use, store a ton of writing, or whatever else you need them to, and they are tiny enough to carry around wherever you go. In your purse.Tiny enough to lose. Like I did tonigh...

Thoughts on revisions
on Oct 3, 2009Nearing 9:00 p.m. and time to write. Another trick is to plug into loud music and spent some time spewing words into the pages of a computer journal. Then once you have a flow going, switch over to the project at hand.in reference to: Echo Arna (vi...

Novel Revisions
on Oct 3, 2009 in revisions manuscripts writing novels Do you have a novel stuffed in a drawer? Gathering dust on a shelf? Novels don't write themselves. And unfortunately novels don't re-write themselves into polished, readable, and sellable manuscripts. I have at least six draft novels in house, al...

SCBWI Conference Reflections - Correction
on May 25, 2009 in Michael Stearns literary agents SCBWI Quick update on the "SCBWI Reflections" I posted on Sunday 5/17: my writer friend, Amanda, recently got a comment on her blog, literallyhumann.blogspot.com from literary agent Michael Stearns, who said he wanted to "squash the rumor before it gained...

American Idol - And the Winner Is...
on May 21, 2009...No, I'm not kidding, but let me explain. The winner is Kris Allen, the "dark horse" contestant, who looks and sings like a skinny teddy bear. He is skinny, with bigish ears, and his voice is kind of fuzzy too, not in a bad way but it has a bit of...

Post SCBWI Conference Reflections
on May 18, 2009 in vampires merfolk Michael Stern Peggy King Anderson Stephanie Meyer Ellen Hopkins SCBWI writing Connie Hsu This'll be a list, because I think all conference attendees are still digesting two full days of information. My brain is busy with ideas and goals, but here are the first little snippets and impressions:The agent who spent years being an editor like...

Count down to SCBWI Conference
on May 13, 2009 in PNWA critique groups Devon DeLapp Bruce Colville SCBWI Odyssey of Zomas writing Stone Fields SCBWI stands for the Society of Children's Books Writers and Illustrators. Say that name twenty times fast. And it's not about monsters, either. If you are interested in writing books for very young children, middle grade readers, young adults, or ad...

The Short Story - Why and Where Ideas Come From...
on Apr 19, 2009 in Jamie Zeppa Croatian Bhutan Johnathan Yardley Beyond the Sky and Earth Buddhist Courtney Angela Brkic souls UN International War Tribunal Lumen writing Stone Fields There are many books that have left a permanent mark on me, but I want to write about two of them specifically: both have lasting power and I have been struggling with the thematic lines of their intersection. That struggle has resulted in a short st...