My Blog
Conference Prep 101
Writers conferences (like the upcoming Colorado Gold) are a wonderful opportunity to improve your writing skills, grow your network in the industry, and level up your career. If you've never been to one, I'd highly recommend giving it a try. If you're heading to your...
Time to Validate Yourself
Like many writers, I suffer from impostor syndrome, lack of self-confidence, and a constant am-I-good-enough anxiety. Every now and then I hit a major milestone—a short story acceptance to a magazine, a full manuscript request from an agent—and for a few days, my...
My Year in Books: Sundry Summer
Since I was busy drafting my new YA fantasy novel this summer, I didn't do my usual themed book months for June and July. Instead, I read a hodgepodge of writing resource books (to help get me through the WIP) and YA novels (to help get me into the teenage mindset)....
Character Study: The Love Interest
After seeing The Incredibles 2 in theaters, Andrew and I have been on a superhero movie kick. We've watched every Marvel and DC movie we could find at the library, so we've seen a lot of CGI action, a lot of digitally enhanced muscle, and a lot of...love interests....
My Year in Books: Magical May
I didn’t have much time for reading this month, since I got married (!) and spent two weeks in Ireland on my honeymoon. But I did get some reading done on the eight-hour flight across the pond. I first intended for this month’s theme to encompass fantasy in general....
The One Thing Every Writer Needs
I’ve heard much discussion on the subject of what it takes to be a writer—more specifically, a successful one. What must you do, what qualities must you have, to set yourself up for success? Is it a degree in creative writing, an MFA, a certification of some kind? Or...