Wherever Would I Be

I’ve made a fairly big decision about my second baby – Lucy’s story. I’ve decided that I will be self-publishing this novel. It might not feel like a big decision to most – but it feels big to me. There are a couple of reasons for this. The first is because of my experience withContinue reading “Wherever Would I Be”

Book Covers

I went down a rabbit hole recently. A Canva book cover design rabbit hole. I’ve decided that I want to self-publish my second manuscript (for a few reasons I’ll chat about in another post some time), and I was goofing around with covers. I played around with some of the templates, and then I wentContinue reading “Book Covers”

#10Queries and #DVPit Updates

Alas, no bites for #DVPit – which might just be the universe reminding me that I don’t need to be adding anything to my already packed to do list. I shall focus on surviving the semester and perhaps starting to query one of the manuscripts over winter break. As for #10Queries – I had heardContinue reading “#10Queries and #DVPit Updates”

Writing Slump

On the morning of Friday, March 5, I received All Falling Things back from my editor. I asked for a timeline since they didn’t offer a deadline, and the response was by the end of April if possible. I returned the manuscript March 18. [strained smile] Any moment I wasn’t working or sleeping, I wasContinue reading “Writing Slump”

Looking for Lucy

I’ve got a working title for my work in progress! *pops champaign* Titles are hard (as I’ve written about before). I don’t know why – but they are. I find that if I don’t have the title first, if the story doesn’t evolved from a pre-picked title, it gets incredibly hard the longer into theContinue reading “Looking for Lucy”

A Love Letter to Scotland

I first fell in love with Scotland when I took a Scottish Lit course in college. Our professor, hands down, was the best prof I’ve ever had – I kid you not, when he taught History of the English Language, it was the first time in the university’s history that the course had a waitingContinue reading “A Love Letter to Scotland”

Lucy is Now Luminous

I always require that my students title everything – and not just “Narrative Essay” or “Haiku”. I tell them, if the introductory paragraph or first few lines are like the first impression upon meeting someone, then the title is like catching eyes across the room – it is the thing that will get them toContinue reading “Lucy is Now Luminous”

Goode Versus Melville

in 2015, I got an idea for a Young Adult superhero novel. It would be told in first person by the son of a super villain hellbent on revenge against the man who killed his wife, the mother of his child. Our narrator, though, both used and neglected by his father, would want nothing toContinue reading “Goode Versus Melville”

80K for Lucy

My first draft for Lucy’s story was about 60K, and I was panicked. I love the idea of this story, and I was heartbroken that I felt I had reached the end but missed the genre’s minimum by 20K. I knew, of course, that I had rushed things and that there were subplots that neededContinue reading “80K for Lucy”

Beta Readers for Lucy

I went into the post office today. Normally, that’s not a sentence that is worth writing down – but considering I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been inside any such establishment since *checks watch* March, this was a big deal. I donned a mask. I went inside. I tried myContinue reading “Beta Readers for Lucy”