Welcome to the December book review! At the end of each month, I review the books I’ve read. Enjoy! New feature (as of November 2015): At the end of the post, I’ll list the books that I started with high hopes, but did not manage to finish. They weren’t for me, but one reader’s trash is another’s treasure, […]
novel
I Got Knocked Down: A Story of Rejections and Hope
The original title of this post, as I planned it on my editorial calendar, was “How to Stay Sane and Keep Writing During The Holidays.” I still think that’s a great title. Problem is, I don’t feel qualified to write it right now. I’ve fallen off my writing horse this past week. I’ve stumbled, and I’m […]
How I Research A Historical Novel
When I first decided to write a historical novel, the research was the part I most dreaded. I had written too many research papers in high school and college to look forward to the experience of doing it again, even voluntarily. Especially voluntarily: I thought that the research stage would suck the life out of my desire […]
Are You NaNo-Ing?
It’s National Novel-Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)! Writers, are you NaNo-ing? Non-writers, what do you think about this annual tradition? I am not participating this year, nor have I ever done so. I’m not going so far as to say I’ll never NaNo because I’ve often found myself revoking the “nevers” in my life. But right now it’s […]
October Book Review: Life, Death, Royalty and Persistence
Welcome to the October book review! At the end of each month, I review the books I’ve read. Enjoy! (Disclaimer: I actually finished so many books in October that I’m going to shift some of them into next month’s review. Thank you to library and bookstore binges for supplying great reading material, and my new habit of going […]
How’s Your Writing Life?
Writers and non-writers alike seem to struggle when inquiring about my writing. They want to ask about my book without hearing me drone endlessly on my characters and how the Triangle Fire was a vital, pivotal moment in American history. They want to ask after agents I’ve queried without touching a nerve if I haven’t heard […]