While reading through my first draft, one thing has become abundantly clear: What I have here isn’t a draft at all. What I have is a really, really detailed outline.

Part of the reason for this is that my main goal while I was writing was to just finish. I really wanted to get from point A to point B and wrap things up. While I was working I just kept pushing forward, trying to think of events that could occur to keep the story moving and grow these characters, until they reach…

A few weeks ago, Girls Write Now held its first-ever annual benefit and awards.  It was a perfect evening--as authentic, inspirational and moving as the organization, and worthy of the girls and the wonderful…

A few weeks ago, my friend and former jogging partner Ellen Sweet sent me this snapshot that she had just discovered while scanning old photographs into her computer. I remembered the picture, and I may even have a copy of it somewhere, but it was something of a shock to see it illuminated on my…

In a couple of weeks, Hedgebrook’s second Vortext Salon for women writers will take place on Whidbey Island: three extraordinary days of workshops and conversation, in a beautiful setting, led by six renowned writers and teachers: Dorothy Allison, Karen Joy Fowler, Elizabeth George, Jane Hamilton, Ruth Ozeki and Gail Tsukiyama.

Vortext was just a gleam in Karen Joy Fowler’s eye a year ago, when she came to us with…

In my last post (sorry for missing a week- I was on vacation!), I asked some author friends where they like to write. This week I asked them when they prefer to write. While I tend to be the most productive in the middle of the day and late afternoon/early evening, their answers were quite different:…

Many of life’s treasures remain constant in the state of simplicity—a lesson that author Molly Friedenfeld learned when she began her journey in search of ancient wisdom. When Friedenfeld moved from her head down to her heart, it became clear: Love is simple. Truth is simple.…

Sarah Glazer takes a second look at her reaction to an experiment.

I’m still not sure if I like novelist Ali Smith’s Artful. It has been marketed as a writing…

I first "met" today's guest author, Amy Sue Nathan, when she interviewed me for her blog, Women's Fiction Writers. I was on a layover at a packed, noisy airport, standing in a coffee line as we spoke by phone, but Amy somehow made that impossible interview so good that Ballantine bound it into The Four Ms. Bradwells paperback. We met in person at the Tribune Lit…

So many choices…so few guidelines or clear answers. How’s an author to choose?

With the proliferation of publishing options—traditional publishing, self-publishing, partner publishing, package publishing, e-books, p-books, and so on‑-many authors find themselves stymied by which route is best for them and…

Inspired by Dane Golden's guest post on YouTube videos, I have begun a new series of YouTube videos, the second of which answers the question "Should all authors (published or not) blog?" Check out the video below for my answer. Also, one announcement: Litquake, San Francisco's literary conference, is introducing Digi.lit, a one-day digital publishing conference that will take…

Recently, in a family newsletter from the 1930’s, I came across a passage that seemed to speak directly to me as a writer. 

The little sheets, typed up and mimeographed in Philadelphia and distributed to an extended Jewish family scattered on several continents, were the proud chronicle of immigrants…

Why is it our motivation sometimes wavers this time of year? Do you feel like the Little Engine That Could losing steam up a big pull? Maybe it’s the close of school and the beginning of summer. For some of us, that means a change in routine with kids home. Or maybe it’s that we’re five months into the year, and the…

Six years ago, I made a phone call that changed my life.

The call was to Thomas G. Palaima, a MacArthur-winning classics professor at the University of Texas at Austin. Tom founded…

If you haven’t impregnated a Kardashian, toppled Wall Street, or starred in your own syndicated un-reality show, you may not have an instant platform for promoting your newly minted book. Let’s face it, for most first-time authors—and even for many of the multiply published among us—the first…

Earlier this week Howard VanEs, who I’m partnering with on our June 1-2 Self-Publishing Summit, presented a webinar, "6 Ways to Profit from Your Unfinished Book," that…

Joan Steinau Lester's second novel, Mama's Child released yesterday. Alice Walker calls it "an astonishing accomplishment ... riveting art," and it's an Ebony Magazine Editor's Pick. Joan is also the author of four other books, including the novel Black, White,…

Have any of you read P.G. Wodehouse?  I am devouring the Jeeves books right now (on "The Inimitable Jeeves" and just finished "Right Ho, Jeeves"), and one of the most delicious things about these books, which are like crack if you are a fan of British humor, is the names.  Gussie Fink Nottle.  Bingo Little.  G. D'Arcy…

Today is my pub day, and to celebrate my publisher Gallery/ Simon & Schuster is giving away two copies of The Lake House, to She Writes members. Just leave a comment to win.

The moment I've dreamt about is here. Ever since I was a little girl, sitting in the library tucked between the shelves with my nose in a book, I've imagined what it would be like to have my book published.

In the last few months, there's been so much anticipation, hard work, things I…

Have you ever tried to get your book into a bookstore—chain or independent—but was turned down cold?

Here you are, a local author with a novel. Your book may be fiction or nonfiction, it may have local significance or not, but it would be nice if at least your area bookstores would…

I used to write in coffee shops, but now I write almost exclusively at my desk, which is located in a tidy corner of my living room. It's not a separate office, but it works just great for me. I thought it would be fun to ask some author friends where they feel most productive. Here's what they had to say:

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