I'm in for my 5th year participating in National Novel Writing Month ( Read more... )

I should have asked them first.

The fourth-grade class hustled like they hadn’t done all day to pack up their bags and sit on the floor around my chair.

I hadn’t served as a substitute in ages (although last time had been memorable), but their teacher had taught my daughter, and personally asked for my help. I tucked the pink hair away as best I ( Read more... )

Ordinarily I'm not always the biggest fan of celebrities-cum-children-book-writers, but this one is pitch perfect. I'd buy it, oh yeah.

The trailer is a thing of wonder.

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I made my first book trailer! I just decided to figure it out, and my friend Gaylon's book is coming out in a few weeks. I was a critique buddy on this novel, and I'm so thrilled for him!

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His web site is still in progress (I'm helping him with that next week.)

It's 3 a.m. and I'm thinking of a 16-year-old boy named Ian ( Read more... )

I admit it, I'm an infidel.

Earlier this year, I was passionately in love with my middle grade novel. We were together every day, often long into the night, mutually basking in the glow of each other's fond attention.

Then, some agents loved it. And I released her into the world where she still sits on a desk or two, one who seems fairly enamored. ( Read more... )

Yes, I've neglected you, my sweet little blog, for the sexier more demanding days of ScriptFrenzy.

When I took on the duties of organizing ML for the Austin Screnzies, I thought of last year, and how three or four of us knocked out our scripts in relative solitude.

I wanted to recruit *a little* and build it up slowly. I joined two screenwriting ( Read more... )

What would you do if you were your main character for a day?

Last Sunday, six of my writer friends got together for Live Character Interviews, where we assumed the persona of our protagonist and got barraged with questions on our past, our motivations, our fears, and our hopes. We had no idea how helpful this exercise would be when we sat around a ( Read more... )

An amazing talk about how to not burn out as a creative genius by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love. Watching it at 4 a.m. after some really difficult writing days has done some major damage control. Many writer friends have felt saved by it.

Some mistakes you only make once.

Take, for example, the time I electrocuted myself while unplugging studio strobes in a Travis County Courtroom. There was no need to tattoo "Discharge lights before touching metal" on my wrist. Two hours of EKGs later, my heart rhythm did go back to normal. No way would I do that again.

Writing, though, feels a ( Read more... )