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Guest Blogger Rebecca Entel on the Tricks that Helped Her Finish Writing a...
Rebecca Entel’s first novel is Fingerprints of Previous Owners (Unnamed Press, 2017). Her short stories and essays have appeared in Guernica, Joyland Magazine, Literary Hub, Electric Literature,...
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Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers -- April 20, 2018 Edition
>Publishers Weekly reports on "A New Generation of African-American-Owned Bookstores."> In case you missed it, the 2018 Pulitzer Prizes were awarded this week. Of note: the novel prize went to...
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Taking the Book on the Road (or: Good Thing I Like to Drive)
Before the craziness of publication arrives (Starting with Goodbye says hello to the world on Tuesday, May 1), I wanted to let my blog readers know that the first two months of my book tour schedule...
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Book Birthday! Starting with Goodbye makes its official debut. Hello World!
I'm almost always awake past midnight anyway. But I'm not usually watching the clock to tick into the new day. Maybe it is a bit silly, wanting to drink in the first moments of the first day when my...
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Guest Blogger Debra Borden on Switching from Fiction to Fact
When I began featuring guest bloggers, Debra Borden was one of the first I invited, after meeting at an event for writers in northern New Jersey. In addition to writing, Debra works as a Licensed...
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Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers -- June 1, 2018 Edition
> How much can you imagine winning in a writing contest? A New Jersey writing professor won the Sunday (London) Times EFG short story contest -- a cool £ 30,000 (around $40K).> Have a hankering...
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Guest Blogger Ele Pawelski on the Value of the Ubiquitous Writing Group
Ele Pawelski’s novella, The Finest Supermarket in Kabul, was published by Quattro Books in December 2017. Her short stories have appeared in the Nashwaak Review and Flash Fiction Magazine. A ten-year...
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What's Next: An Excerpt from Starting with Goodbye, a Jersey Shore Visit...
Today I'm celebrating a little, as the terrific website Next Avenue (a PBS venture), has published an excerpt from Starting with Goodbye: A Daughter's Memoir of Love after Loss. I don't know if I'm...
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Notes from the Third Row: Good Stuff from the Hippocamp Conference for...
When this blog was an infant, I ran some posts summing up advice and insights I’d returned with after attending a writing conference, residency, or similar gathering. I thought I’d revive the...
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The Intersection of Book PR and Writing Advice: A Round-Up
One task of a new author is to help generate positive online coverage/mentions of one's new book. Some are less within the author's control than others of course, and some are more fun than...
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Guest Blogger Jane Paffenbarger Butler on: Theme Reading with High School...
One of the most enjoyable ways I meet other writers is at small conferences, often over a meal, and one topic that often comes up is how we all make a living while chasing writing goals. That’s how I...
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First-time Author Gratitude that Lingers (plus book giveaways)
To say that the first six months after one's debut book is published are a whirlwind would be an understatement. For me, these months have been filled with so many wonderful experiences and events, new...
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The Strength of Your Memory Does Not Determine Whether or Not You Can Write...
Much of my teaching of writing work is grounded in creative nonfiction, and especially writing memoir. In workshops and classes, we never run out of topics that are worth thinking about, discussing,...
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One Year Book Anniversary: Traditional Gift is Paper, the Modern Gift is a...
Today is my book’s first birthday, or perhaps the right term is first anniversary. STARTING WITH GOODBYE was published a year ago by University of Nevada Press. I’m so grateful to everyone who...
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Spring 2019 Newsletter
It's bird, it's a plane, it's...true spring in New Jersey!Hello Readers and Friends,Something strange and lovely has happened in northern New Jersey this spring: we’re having spring-like weather!...
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Publication Goals 2019, Mid-Year Report: Numbers and What Really Matters
Every January, when I think about my upcoming writing year, in addition to working on one big work-in-progress project, I envision what I’d like to see happen with publication of short pieces of work....
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Yep, I Still Did it.
Every New Year's Eve, I make two *I Did It Lists* for the year that's ending (one professional, the other personal), I choose my super-secret word for the next year, and I toss out old make-up and...
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Working for a Living, Living Like a Writer, Working with Writing: Not the...
“I admire that you make a living as a writer.”A young woman writer said this to me at an event recently.I’m quick to correct her: No, I don’t.Because it’s the truth.I make a living, I tell her, because...
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Writers Writing in Rooms in Winter. Sign me up.
A few months ago, while completing details related to teaching a three-day memoir workshop at the Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway (where I'm at this weekend), I hesitated at the question, Would you...
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Guest Blogger Michelle Cameron on: Launching a Book in the Time of COVID-19:...
A little more than seven years ago, I began teaching with The Writers Circle, a regional New Jersey writing community, in large part because of Michelle Cameron, an historical fiction novelist and...
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Guest Blogger Christin Geall on Insta-prose: Developing an Audience Through...
Christin Geall is a Canadian writer, designer, photographer, and author of Cultivated: Elements of Floral Style(Princeton Architectural Press, 2020). Her writing and floral work focuses on the...
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Guest Blogger Shelley Blanton-Stroud on Fact and Truth, Fiction and Nonfiction
Shelley Blanton-Stroud grew up in California’s Central Valley, the daughter of Dust Bowl immigrants. She teaches college writing in Northern California, consults with writers in the energy industry,...
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Guest Blogger Desiree Villena on Lessons Learned from Reading Dozens of Short...
Desiree Villena is a writer with Reedsy, which connects authors with self-publishing resources and professionals. She also writes her own short stories. Please welcome Desiree Villenna. I’m more of a...
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I'm Good at Titles. But this time, I'll defer to the Queen.
In a 1992 speech, England’s Queen Elizabeth II characterized a year filled with turmoil for her and her family: “…it has turned out to be an 'Annus Horribilis'.” Can I just say, about the last 12...
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Winter, Walking Casts, Writing Books. Going on...
At the nearby track where I walk when the roads are icy or I’m recovering from yet another injury, or have time only for a quick two miles, on many mornings on the inside field, a freelance soccer...
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