• Fiction,  How To Write A Novel: Step by Step,  Uncategorized,  Writing quotes,  writing tips

    Mentoring

    Mentoring a new writer is exciting on several levels. There is the anticipation of guiding a new writer around some of those pitfalls that often plague beginners and the joy of helping to make someone's dream come true. It is challenging on a different level from writing your own work for the very reason that it is not your story and the point is not to make it your story. It's a dance of learning when to lead and when to follow.

  • Fiction,  Happy New Year,  How To Write A Novel: Step by Step,  The Writing Life,  Writing prompts,  Writing quotes,  writing tips

    Write Your Story

    “You only fail if you stop writing.” Ray Bradbury (from SmartBlogger 138 Writing Quotes to Inspire) For me, 2021 was a year of wandering. I started out with good intentions. With one manuscript out on submission, I had what I was confident was a great idea for a new teen contemporary novel. Maybe it would even be a rom-com. I wrote happily away, making excellent progress, until, I didn’t. It wasn’t a problem of not planning enough ahead, or anything like that. I actually had written beginning, middle and ending scenes. Enough to convince myself that I had a viable idea. Enough to convince myself that I had an idea…

  • Fiction,  Happy New Year,  How To Write A Novel: Step by Step,  It's been a year,,  The Writing Life

    HAPPY NEW YEAR 2022

    IN 2021, I faced the new year with SO MUCH excitement about a new manuscript, which I absolutely LOVE, being sent out on submission. Vaccines were sure to be on the horizon, bringing the end of Covid. I was full of hope and enthusiasm. I had virtual teachers’ conventions and author tours lined up. It was going to be an amazing year! That was January, 2021. January 2022, looks very different. My hope is a little more subdued. My writing journey has taken a little different turn than I expected. (More on that in coming posts.) The publisher of my historical fiction books, Ronald Hatch, of Ronsdale Press passed away.…

  • How To Write A Novel: Step by Step,  Reading,  The Writing Life,  Writing

    What’s in a Title?

    In my work-in-progress, I seem to be hesitant to give my manuscript even a working title. Why is that? I always thought that the title needed to say something significant about he story. The essence of the plot in a few words. Anne of Green Gables, follows the life of the orphan, Anne, from the time she arrived at Green Gables, for example. I picked Winds of L’Acadie, for my first novel because, through the magic of the porcupine quill box Sarah found at her Grandparent’s house, winds transported her to Nova Scotia at the time when the Acadians were about to be deported from their homes. Not the most…