Learning from the Masters: The First 250 Words

I’m currently revising the first book I ever wrote. After many years of debate, I’ve decided to definitively kill my darling of a prologue and start right away with the main story. I wrote before about the importance of the first 250 words of your manuscript and I’ll probably write about it again because it was […]

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Friday Things

This week was interminable. But now it’s Friday! Here are some things that made my week:

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Wanderlusty Wednesday: Saint-Malo

In honor of the fact that I’ve just started reading this book (and so far, it’s amazing), today I’m going to talk about one of my favorite little places on earth: Saint-Malo.

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MK’s Book Reviews: Chaos Walking

I’ve been reading up a storm lately, barely pausing to update my Goodreads, much less write a review. But I recently read a trilogy of books that merits one. The Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness merits a lot more than that.  “Without a filter, a man is just chaos walking.”

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Wanderlusty Wednesday: Sintra, Portugal

Over brunch on Sunday, we learned that a friend of ours was considering vacation in Portugal. To which I responded immediately: go!

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Friday Things

After a good week last week, I’m back to feeling restless. It’s my job, it’s the city, it’s the winter that still hasn’t completely gone away, it’s my miniature apartment. I’m dreaming of wide open fields and blue skies and houses with actual kitchens. I go around in circles: leave the city–but it’s not necessarily cheaper, and I […]

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Wanderlusty Wednesday: Rouen

I’ve written before about my preferred method of travel: the slow-soak version.

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Learning from the Masters: Kissing Scenes

So in my contemporary YA work in progress, I’m finally finally at the point where the people I want to kiss, do. Yay! I wrote a draft of that scene. And then reread it. And it was … meh. I wanted the literary equivalent to fireworks, only less clichéd. I did not produce that. And though I know […]

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The First 250 Words

Much has been written on the importance of the first 250 words of your manuscript. All of it is true. It can be hard, as a writer, to keep that in mind–you have the whole story to keep in your mind–so polishing (or demolishing and rewriting) your opening is something best done at the editing stage. Once […]

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Friday Things

TGIF!! (How I wish that lineup of sitcoms was still on…) Here are the things that made my week:

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