Tag Archives: writer

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Posted on February 14, 2013 by

 

Posted in Community | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

Happy News–and the Shrinking of Newspapers’ Book Coverage

Posted on December 27, 2012 by

We have a lot of new author interviews coming up in 2013, including Anthony Lee Collins of U-town scheduled for New Year’s Eve. My writer-friend Kristen Forbes had her essay “Dream Girl” published in The Rumpus last week. It’s a candid … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Journalism, Reading, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Writing Challenge #19: Kathleen Lane’s Thing Collection

Posted on December 10, 2012 by

I’m honored to be in a writing group with author Kathleen Lane. She has a strong, compelling voice and an uncanny ability to mix humor, heartbreak and oddities of the human condition. I learn something new about myself every time I … Continue reading →

Posted in Community, Writing, Writing Challenge | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Book of the Year and Other News

Posted on December 6, 2012 by

I’m new to being a small press publisher, with my first title just released in October, and I’ve already learned how much time marketing and setting up readings takes away from working with the words themselves. I’ve also learned that … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Reading, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , | 21 Comments

Why I Started My Own Small Press

Posted on October 1, 2012 by

As many of you know, I’ve been working on a tight deadline to finish Brave on the Page, a collection of Oregon author interviews and essays, so it can be available at Wordstock, the Portland literary fest coming up in mid-October. I’m … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Community, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , | 25 Comments

A Letter to My Protagonist

Posted on September 17, 2012 by

Dear Henri, If you belonged to someone else, you would be at the end of your journey, standing in a glass aviary in Rhode Island, surveying where you have been during drafts one and two. If you belonged to a … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Revision, Writing | Tagged , , , , | 15 Comments

Past / Present

Posted on September 5, 2012 by

Do you ever bump into your old self? My family and I went camping on the Oregon coast this weekend, and on the way home, we stopped by my old newspaper office. I was managing editor there in 2004 and … Continue reading →

Posted in Community | Tagged , , | 30 Comments

Stockpile

Posted on July 31, 2012 by

I’ve published 200 posts here on my blog, but I have another forty drafts sitting around. Some are partially written, more general ideas than fleshed out posts. Others are ready to go. Some are outdated, like the wrapup of a … Continue reading →

Posted in Community, Writing | Tagged , , | 18 Comments

Get the Details Right

Posted on July 26, 2012 by

There’s nothing so jarring as to bump up against an ill-placed detail in a story. Especially in historical fiction. One phrase or out-of-place image can make the reader lose faith in the writer. And good writing on some level, I … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Writing | Tagged , , | 18 Comments

Writing Challenge #17: Cutting Back on Minor Characters

Posted on July 18, 2012 by

Writing Challenge #16 focused on using organic metaphors to lend your minor characters more personality. This one is about the opposite–dealing with too many minor characters. Is your novel-in-progress full of bit players who are sitting around doing very little … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Plot, Writing, Writing Challenge | Tagged , , , , | 22 Comments