I recently finished a massive revision on my cozy mystery. It took me almost a year from when I started, every morning waking up and thinking about my protagonist and what problems she’d be facing that day. Needless to say, when I typed those sweet sweet words, The End, I felt like this: And yet, […]
As I’m feverishly working to complete edits on my cozy mystery, I’ve developed a serious case of Editing Brain. Editing Brain is where I’ve spent so much time playing with words, sentence structure, scene choreography, etc. that my brain simultaneously overanalyzes everything and turns to mush. But here’s the thing: Editing Brain is a necessary risk to […]
I attended the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers’ Colorado Gold Conference this past weekend and, jeez, my head’s still spinning! The conference was AMAZING, the best one yet, jam packed full of sessions on things like conflict and verbs, critique workshops, and pitching opportunities. But more important than all that were the wonderful people in attendance. […]
I’m sure we’re familiar with the frustration, the horror, of reading a truly great novel only to be pulled out of the story by inauthentic dialogue. You’d think if the author could get everything else right, they could nail the dialogue. But dialogue, like so much of writing, is harder than it seems. Here are my […]
“Music is a proud, temperamental mistress. Give her the time and attention she deserves, and she is yours. Slight her and there will come a day when you call and she will not answer. So I began sleeping less to give her the time she needed.” ~ The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. […]