Speed Dating for Literary Agents

Two weekends ago, through a fog of not-yet diagnosed bacterial pneumonia, I went to my first writers’ conference pitch session. Think about speed dating in hell with a lot more at stake, maybe 3 plus years of work on a particular project. The gun goes off. The pitchees were led upstairs, trying not to look […]

Read More

Author. Crank? Spanker???

I cannot stress enough the importance of editing your work. Let me give you an example. Excited and terrified in equal parts by the prospect of my first writer’s conference, I created a business card. Finding the image for the front was easy-peasy. The picture of a girl, well I feel like a girl, young, […]

Read More

What Mom Taught Me About Love

No one can say that us kids had an easy time of it when my parents were married. They were bitter enemies sniping at each other across trenches filled with their children. Daily we were hit with shrapnel. But we tried to love each other – each in our own way – distorted, ugly, and […]

Read More