TOOK THE DAY OFF WORK TO WRITE. HAD NO NOTES, NO IDEAS, NO CHARACTERS WHISPERING IN MY EAR ABOUT HOW MUCH THEY NEEDED TO GET OUT OF MY HEAD AND ONTO THE PAGE. STARTED WITH ZERO AND HERE'S WHAT CAME OUT:

You tell yourself that you’re just taking a drive to clear your head. You…

posted by Leann Sweeney

The title questions are important because they actually have to do with my writing process, but they seem particularly relevant this morning as I write this blog very late. What did I want? To write a blog for today. What was stopping me? THE PUKING VIRUS. I haven't had such a miserable stomachache since I worked with sick children. They were always passing along the latest and greatest puking virus. And I was always cleaning the puke up. But I digress.…

I have a great amount of respect for authors who can crank out numerous books a year. Lori Armstrong is one of them.

Lori is a mom, a wife, member of the local writers group, and a published author. In TWO genres, even! She has multiple books coming out each year. And she's a damn good writer. I admire the fact that she can do all that, even

though I've seen her a little stressed over multiple deadlines.

But what really makes Lori stand out (in my opinion) is that…

Your teachers used to preach it, give extra points for it, rail about your lack of attention to it. You know that neatness and accuracy matter, but somehow when we're tired and frustrated with the whole business of querying, we tell ourselves that one tiny mistake will go unnoticed.

No it won't. Perfection may be an unachievable goal, but close is where you want to be. I have a relative whose job it once was to sift through incoming mail at a large, prosperous firm. His instructions…

Last week we were welcomed by the chief and toured and received an overview of the department. This week it was drugs and police dogs.The general lecture on street drugs was one that is easily available on the internet, but it felt different when the facts and figures and street prices were tied to the streets I drive on every day.

The police dog was amazing. All I can say to anyone up against a Belgian Malinois police dog and who is silly enough to judge these animals by their size…

Next week, hubby and I head off to Chicago to attend Luv is Murder. It will be our first time at this one. Most everyone I know thinks we are crazy to go to Chicago at this time of year--especially with the way the weather has been.

We live in California and the weather has been interesting here too. We're in the foothills and the snow was down to about 1500 feet and we live at 1000--so the hills were covered and we could see the snow on the mountains beyond. Supposed to rain tonight…

I wrote a few months ago about making friends of librarians, and now I'd like to suggest another valuable friendship: other authors. One of the values of sites like this, conferences, and other networking opportunities is that you find people who not only understand you, but also can help you achieve your goals.

I've met authors over the last six years in many venues. In most cases you make polite conversation for a minute or two and then go one with your life. But sometimes there's a…

posted by Jeanne Munn Bracken

I have to present something to my critique group in two days. I've known for 12 days that this was coming up, and I'm still dithering. Am I writing? Well, sort of. I'm still researching updates for the childhood cancer book. I know perfectly well that I can research this puppy until the cows come home, whenever that is, and I will still find updates. At some point I just have to tweak the draft, weave in the updates, and get the monkey off…

Then I began to edit, and guess what--I rather easily eliminated 500 words. One tenth. That's when I remembered the rule of…

by Guest Blogger Kate Flora

In one of my favorite children's books, Sir Kevin of Devon, a young boy takes up a sword and goes off to rid the kingdom of a dragon that is terrorizing the people. Some of the observers tut tut and shake their heads at the folly of a child imagining he might be effective, but in the end, it is the boy, and not some powerful knight, who destroys the dragon and saves the kingdom. The book is written in rhyme, and at the end, when the…

Last night I was asked to speak to some people who want to start a writing group. The discussion brought some pros and cons to mind as I came to the computer this morning.

Pros: encouragement, certainly. We often need impetus to keep writing, to improve our work, and to perservere.

Companionship. No one knows about writing except writers, the joys, the frustrations, and the plot-knots that drive you crazy.

Information. We all know a little bit about writing, editing, and…

Ah, the joys of editing.

"Please find enclosed the first draft of the second book."

"I love it! It's great!! I enclose my initial thoughts."

Read ten page summary of why it is not so great.

"Please find enclosed re-written draft of second book."

"Thank you. Oh, that's much better. Now it's really great! Fantastic!! I enclose the line edits."

Read detailed line-by-line breakdown of why it is neither great nor fantastic, yet.

"Please find…

... and sometimes I wonder if I'll be able to keep all the plates spinning in the air.

A bunch of stuff is ganging up on me. I can't believe I had a day off -- where did the time go?

I'm trying to help some writers organize a contest, I want to prep a book for submission, I'd like to review 4 other books I wrote and get those prepped, and of course there's about 3 books I'd like to write. This doesn't take into account things I HAVE to do: get my cover art request in, work on…

HA, HA, HA, AH, HA, HA, HA, AH, HA, LOLROF . . . It's kind of sad . . . HA, HA, AH, HA, HA . . .

Ooh, a short blog! I've out done myself!