I made my first visit to New York as an author. Mind you, I love the city for its own sake and I loved it again this time (in spite of a sinfully expensive hotel). But the main reason I loved this trip was that I met my agents for the first time in person. It was an incredible visit. I was treated like an important author with a gourmet lunch and limousine ride to Penguin headquarters. It's still all a bit unbelievable.

I have said so before, and many times: I'm incredibly lucky in my…

Want to save energy this winter? Have you tried Blackle?

This is their bumf:

Blackle was created by Heap Media to remind us all of the need to take…

While deep in my MANHUNTER – TRUE NORTH deadline … I leave you with another point of view. Thank you to this reader for showing me my MERC chillin’ up north …

Re: that last blog of mine.

Turns out you gotta join up with that Gather website to view my entry. And then the entries that recieve the most votes of ten stars get to move on to the next round. So basically a contest to see who can shill Gather.com to the most people.

Fuck.

That.

Not for nothing, but judging by some of the other people on that site and some of the other entries, if nobody votes for me, then I'm on the right track. And so far, I couldn't be more…

posted by guest blogger, Kate Flora

Long before the turkey goes in the oven or the youngest son gets hauled to the kitchen to make his “signature” cranberry relish, before the squash-haters have finished whining and those who’ve had too much pie are moaning in the corner, our e-mail queues are already bursting with advice about how to simplify the holiday shopping and cooking.

Today, I’m going to be guilty of joining that crowd, but lucky you—this is a blog, so you can…

Just kidding. I really don't know. Here are some thoughts, though.

First they have to know it exists. Estimates vary, but there are thousands of books released each year. Just having someone hear your title is a plus, so you need to let people know that there is a book. A lot of people.

Second, potential readers have to become intrigued. I've worked on this one, because I tend to be a real self-deprecating sort and, the first time a friend told me he wanted to read my book,…

posted by Jeanne Munn Bracken

I just spent three weeks pet- and house-sitting for friends named Smith--really!--who went to Hawaii. The pets and I all survived. So did the house, more or less. That house had it in for me, though. (Insert evil music here.)

I stocked up on simple food so I would not have to cook. I could (and did) microwave everything. That…

HEAD SHOT KILLER PAROLED

Sometimes when a story forms in your head, you jump into writing it before thinking very hard about the characters around whom the story revolves. Plot is a wonderful thing, and certainly we can point to massively successful novels in which we never learn one important thing about the main character. Most of the time, however, readers want a protagonist to be life-like. And if she's going to move on into other novels, she also has to grow in some way.

The best way to get to know your…

Well now for some self emulation my name is Michael Warden. At present I fancy myself as a freelance writer having been writing seriously for the…

HE’S FREEZING HIS BUNS

Spotted up North again. Brrr, looks chilly :). Spy the city in the background? Can anyone guess where North of 60 this photo was taken?

I love that my books are finding their way into the frozen north, since MANHUNTER, the book I will turn in at the end of this month, is the…

It's one of those things you most look forward to when you're unpublished - your first publication day. In actual fact, the launch of a book is never quite that clear cut - I remember walking into a bookshop two weeks before the launch of my first book and finding half a dozen copies on the shelf. I was so shocked that I asked the staff what they were doing there and they thought I was complaining and offered to remove them!

Then as time goes on and you publish more books, the…

Sara Teasdale's poem, "The Long Hill" has always been one of my favorites. She speaks of how she ended up on the other side of the "hill" before she realized it. The reason she didn't notice is "brambles" that catch on her clothing and cause her to look down rather than ahead.

The brambles have been at me today. A mistake in mailing out promotional material, little things that sidetrack me from my work plan, and that worst of bugaboos, computer problems.

What happened to that…

Posted by Doranna Durgin



Once upon a time, I was a pre-teen who spent a lot of time scribbling in a notebook. Although I started with my own characters and my own book (about a seeing-eye dog), I quickly started writing in what was the very first television universe to fascinate me: Star Trek. (Don't even ask if this was the original series. Yes, thank…

Look what came in from north of the 60th parallel — a precious button of a reader posing for her mum. With the MERC!

And from Bailey Stewart, one of the most awesome reviews a writer could ever hope for.…