There’s nothing more stressful than taking a cold, hard look at the first five pages of your manuscript only to realize they’re unlikely to compete favorably against the other submissions out there. You’ve learned so […]
After spending the last five years writing my first novel, I have the uneasy feeling that if I’d figured out how to write a synopsis sooner rather than later I could have cut that time […]
Mary Buckham is the woman who single-handedly ended my inability to write a one-page synopsis. During a 2-week intensive online class she showed me how to reduce my rambling epic fantasy to five essential turning […]
[Photo: from left to right—Debby Garfinkle, agent Laura Rennert, Jay Asher] Today’s post is a short update on the Writer Beware Blogs! mention of me by Alyx Dellamonica, one of my teachers at the UCLA Writers […]
There’s a guest post by Alyx Dellamonica at the Writer Beware blog today mentioning me as an example of a writer responding to the current market pressure to build a social media presence online in […]
Still in the dark about how to submit to agents? Looking for enlightenment? One of the best ways to stay informed about the state of the industry, improve your craft, clear any confusion about how […]
In a genre that is as much about wish-fulfillment as it is a reaction to the Scientific Revolution that denied us mystique and magic in favor of equations and mechanics, it is hardly surprising that […]
YA author Andrew Smith has enjoyed a meteoric rise since publishing his first book, GHOST MEDICINE, in September 2008. Since then he’s published a second book IN THE PATH OF FALLING OBJECTS, and has two […]
This week I participated in an engrossing #LitChat discussion of Gothic Romance and an hour just wasn’t enough time to explore all the questions that came up so I thought we’d continue the chat on […]
I’m always shocked by how few writers actually read these days. I meet writers all the time who are eager to talk about what they’re writing, and keen to spend hard-earned dollars on writing classes, […]
Lewis Buzbee is a third generation California native who began writing at the age of 15, after reading the first chapter of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. Since then he’s been a dishwasher, a […]