Turns out I do know what I’m doing with this whole book thing. 🙂 Here are some comments from Jennie, my book coach. Her encouragement is invaluable. Makes me feel like I can actually accomplish this task. On creating Lyra’s … Continue reading →

I loved Suzanne Collins’s book The Hunger Games. Katniss, the heroine, had to survive this epic, gladiator, fight-to-the-death prime time reality show nefariously created by the Capitol to keep the Districts in line. It all made such convincing sense–why the Capitol needed the Games, … Continue reading →

Wow, I’ve managed to ramble for 100 blog posts already! No published book yet, but lots of new knowledge and insight from my trials and errors. I had a chance to share some of what I’ve learned with Jennie, my book … Continue reading →

Where does it end? Not the book–I know how it ends. (Finally!) What I mean is the backstory. Where does the backstory end? More precisely, where does my job of unearthing each character’s backstory end? I fully accept that each character, no matter … Continue reading →

My husband asked me the other day how far I am into my novel. You know what? I couldn’t answer. I had no idea–and that’s because I’ve been writing the scenes out of order (see previous blog post “Jump Around”). Turns … Continue reading →

Remember the rap song, “Jump Around” from the early ’90s? No? Not a rap fan? I’d bet you dollars to donuts you’d know it when you hear it (go ahead! Google it, listen, and then tell me I’m wrong.) It’s … Continue reading →

Ever read The Fault in our Stars by John Green? It’s a YA tear-jerker, a story about a teen girl, Hazel, living with cancer (she hates the image of “battling” or “fighting”) who falls for a 17-year-old cancer survivor, Augustus, but is afraid … Continue reading →

Yeah… so… I got nothin’. No hard-won wisdom, no brilliant insights, no aha-moments of my own to share with you. Nothin’ to say on the blog today. I got Blog-block, the Internet version of writer’s block. I daresay, after wasting … Continue reading →