(originally posted at Through the Tollbooth) I spent the weekend reading Reflections, a collection of essays and talks on writing by the children’s fantasy author Diana Wynne Jones. Diana touches on all sorts of topics in her essays, but my favorite passages are the ones in which she describes her writing process: how she grabs… Read more »
(Originally published at The Lucky 13s.) If you walked into my house and took a look around the living room, one of the first pieces of furniture you’d see would be the IKEA sofa. You know the one. You probably own it. Everyone seems to own it. It’s small; it’s squat; it’s most politely described as “functional.”… Read more »
(Originally published at The Lucky 13s.) This week on the Lucky 13s blog, we’re talking about revision—a topic I’ve become awfully familiar with over the past few months. I’m just finishing up a round of revisions to my middle grade pirate fantasy novel, Magic Marks the Spot, and I thought this would be a good… Read more »
About a month ago, I got one of the nicest (and simultaneously most terrifying) gifts a writer can receive: my editorial letter. An editorial letter is usually the first thorough response a writer gets from her editor about her book-in-progress. In my case, my editor at HarperCollins and I had chatted a few months ago… Read more »
When I’m trying to keep things short and sweet, I tell people that I started writing the first draft of MAGIC MARKS THE SPOT in February 2011. I finished the first draft in June, right before I graduated from my MFA program, and that draft became my graduate thesis. After that came a couple rounds… Read more »
