Tuesday marked the beginning of a new chapter in my life—the publication of my first novel. While, in many ways, this has been just another week—each day full of the typical weekly activities and responsibilities (times a thousand, thanks to all the last-minute tasks...
Last month, I had the opportunity to attend a southern (US) fiction panel at my favorite annual event—the Mississippi Book Festival. I missed the first few minutes of that panel. (In my defense, I was meeting Ann Patchett and handing her a copy of my novel—and might...
The Question I got the question the other day. The one that makes me cringe and frantically glance around for an escape while doing a mental run-through of what the asker’s intentions could be. You know the one. Are you self-published? Well, of course I am; and,...
We’ve all been there. Mid-way through a novel, we draw a blank on a character’s hair color and realize that secondary character has been pregnant a little too long. So, how can we keep it all straight? I’m sharing what I do as we examine how to track timelines and...
Welcome to our first official “Day in the Life of an Indie Author” post. Last month, I gave you an introduction and shared why I chose the Indie path and what some of my roles are. Now it’s time to dive in and let you guys behind the scenes. As is often the case with...
You’ve typed The End. Congratulations! Celebrate! Live it up! Now you send it straight to the editor to fix, right? Wrong. Let it breathe or marinate or whatever term you’d like to use. The length of time for this varies for different writers. Some need to set it...