RWA National: RWA-WF Mini-Conference

Wow! I started off this year’s RWA National Conference with the first-ever mini-conference hosted by the Women’s Fiction chapter of RWA. RWA-WF is an amazing chapter in itself, and the mini-con did not disappoint. We opened with a two-hour session from Michael Hauge (no details here; you’ll need to visit his website for those since the material is copyrighted). Hauge has melded the inner...
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How Not to Write a Novel

Thanks to agent Kristin Nelson for this gem! Actually, I don’t mind that insanity abounds like this–makes actual writers like me look like we know what we’re doing!
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Father Time, Baby New Year, and Mother Nature

If you survived the holidays intact, you’re probably in full resolution mode right now. Santa Claus has stepped aside for Father Time and Baby New Year. These two figures have more impact on our writers’ lives than we imagine.Take Father Time, for instance. Bowed and bearded, this old man reminds us of all the time we’ve spent the last year banging our heads over writer’s block, suffering...
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Fence Sitting

This year, baby sister has been brave enough to take the NaNoWriMo plunge, and I am happily cheering her on. From the sidelines, it seems. Although I have ideas in abundance, I have revising to do. I have no business trying to write my own headlong draft when I have other responsibilities. No reason to start playing around with the YA story ideas. No…dammit, I have plenty of reasons, but...
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To Autumn

In honor of my favorite season and this week’s lovely cool snap, enjoy this classic ode from John Keats:SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness! Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run; To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees, And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; To swell the gourd,...
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