Self-Doubt

Self-Doubt

I thought about just leaving it at that. You all know exactly what I’m talking about, don’t you? It goes hand-in-hand with wanting validation, feeling unappreciated, and that pesky cousin: imposter syndrome. It’s especially powerful for me when I...
Jane Yolen’s Advice

Jane Yolen’s Advice

I’m fortunate to live in a great community where there are many serious writers. One of them is Jane Yolen, inspiring, hard-working, award-winning author of books for children and young adults. She posted the following on Facebook this morning, and it is such a...
Avoidance

Avoidance

Yes, I’ve been avoiding writing. My mind is so caught up with a million different things. Such as building and tinkering with this Web site. That’s constructive, right? Here are a few of my favorite things to do instead of write: Research Ride my bicycle...
The dreaded pitch

The dreaded pitch

So, you have a finished manuscript. You’ve polished and prodded and written and rewritten and finally you think it’s ready to find a home in the world. Congratulations! Not everyone can do that, sustain a story over 80k or more words so that there’s...