By Varsha Bajaj
On November 9, 2016, I was at my local Target store.
I had bought milk, eggs, bananas and dog treats and I wandered into the books section because that’s where I am known to stray when I need comforting.
Right there beside Dr. Seuss and under Eric Carle was This is Our Baby,
Continue Reading Guest Post: Varsha Bajaj on Finding Your Book at Target »
This morning I see a child on the early side of toddler, snuggled like a well-placed puzzle piece in his daddy’s arms.
He smiles at me, reaches out with one arm, as if I will be a wonderful new discovery. I reach back…
But, no. The minute I do,
By Ann Angel
Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The Hummingbird’s Daughter (Little, Brown, 2006), perceives drafting as something far more glamorous than me, and so I’m inspired by his words:
“Writing rules. Everything else sucks. Writing is a big sandbox and it’s full of Tonka Trucks and plastic Godzillas.”
Have you experienced that creative space?
Continue Reading Guest Post: Ann Angel on The Sandbox & The Suck Pond »
This week I’ve caught myself for two minutes here, five minutes there, reading a scene from my manuscript in progress.
Not to edit it. Not because I’m nervous about what my new editor will say (that won’t kick in for another couple of weeks).
Not because I don’t have other things to do.
Continue Reading Election Reflections & Caring for Your Creative Heart »
Joy’s first full day at Brazos Bookstore
By Joy Preble
Last month, I became the new Children’s Specialist at Brazos Bookstore in Houston. I hadn’t planned on it, but when you stumble into your dream job, well, you take it!
It’s a balancing act: Selling books and buying books and merchandising and creating store events,
Continue Reading Guest Post: Joy Preble on Life as an Author-Bookseller…or Bookseller-Author? »
Has the wisdom of time and life positively affected my ability to write flawed characters? Or is it the other way around?
I muse about this during an early summer morning’s coffee and writing time.
In much younger days, a painful flaw in a friend’s makeup would end the friendship.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Carol Coven Grannick on Flaws: Fatal – Or Not »
Sonya Mukherjee
is the first-time author of Gemini (Simon & Schuster, 2016). From the promotional copy:
In a powerful and daring debut novel, Sonya Mukherjee shares the story of sisters Clara and Hailey, conjoined twins who are learning what it means to be truly extraordinary.
I headed to my first writer’s residency at The Ragdale Foundation at the end of March with an imagined vision of open space, open time, and what I call “open expectations” – no finish line, no deadline, no shoulds or have tos about the challenging revision of my middle grade novel in verse or the small community of artists of which I’d be part.
Rejection, reviews, competition, disappointment, deadlines, and doubt. There is no shortage of adversity in the writing life, making the ability to bounce back one of the greatest skills a writer can foster. And it can be fostered.
Because resilience is not a genetic or personality trait, but a process which can be learned and practiced.
Continue Reading Guest Post: J. Albert Mann on Writer Resilience »
I’m in a cozy, dark room – too warm, and scattered with noises of children’s breathing, soft wordless Beatles’ arrangements, and the burble of the turtle tank filter. It’s nap-time at the early childhood school where I work, and I’m on duty. I’m also working on a major revision for my novel in verse.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Carol Coven Grannick on In a Dark and Not-So-Quiet Room »
