Books That Stay With Us

I missed posting here during November because I was in the thick of re-thinking my novel, using strategies from Writing the Breakout Novel, by Donald Maass (mentioned in my September 2011 post.)

Maass says (on page 37) to list three

Reading Trouble

During the summer, I stumbled across a book called, The Man Who Forgot How to Read, by Howard Engel, the celebrated Canadian mystery writer.

Identical Strangers

What would you think if you found out in your thirties that you had an identical twin you never knew about? Imagine how meeting that person

Simple Twists of Faith

A top news story this week, about a multimillion dollar settlement to victims of abuse by clergy, made me wish more teens could read Simple Twists of Faith, a Young Adult book that came out this year.

Scent of the Missing

Some of my best reads come from the What’s New shelf at the library, where I recently snagged Scent of the Missing, by Susannah Charleson. Although I’m not a dog person as such,

Clearing the Path (Hurdles Part 7)

bedtime reading

Three weeks ago I began what I assumed would be a quick read of my revised manuscript for any little typos I might have missed. Lo and behold, to my dismay, I stubbed my toes on

Filtering and Feelings (Revision Hurdles – Part 6)

After the major revision of my novel was done last week, I browsed through some editing books that pointed out

First Hurdles

Three years ago, I started writing a novel. Although I had no idea where the story was going, dozens of pages filled up with characters who seemed to be having a great time. At the end of chapter seven, I came to an obstruction—I was bored.

The Right Time and Place

Yesterday I got to see Andrew Clements, my newest favorite author, in person. So much fun. Seemed serendipitous to me that he came to our area at this particular time.

The Key to Writing Fiction

Several years ago, when I first became aware I didn’t know how to write fiction, I looked for help from successful authors. To my surprise, I learned writing is a hot topic.