This year's theme  for the WUFC Writing Contest is: The Drive to Thrive. We are accepting submissions until midnight on August 15th, 2013. WUFC / Writers Unite to Fight Cancer is a group of authors who raise money for cancer research.

Everyone over the age of 18 is eligible to enter the WUFC writing contest. Contestants may have been published before, or be a first time writer. Subject matter may be on any topic as long as it follows the theme of the…

Last week, my audio essay,  "Sanctuary" was published at "The Drum: A Literary Magazine for Your Ears."  As fond and proud as I am of this particular essay and this online literary magazine, having this piece of writing go public gave me the jitters.

"Sanctuary" is about the 2005 death of my mother. In eight years, this is my first time…

I've been having a bit of what I call Critique Anxiety.  Yes, from going to art school, I'm very use to crits. I can't even count how many I've had.  I think they bother you the most or shall I say the prospect of them bothers you the most when you feel most vulnerable.  When grounded and sure of yourself a critique is really a piece of cake.  My recent blog post on my personal blog goes into Critique Anxiety for artists and writers, how you can move through it and come to a better, more…

As I watched sales trickle in during Launch Week for A Writer’s Bucket List, I felt like I was livin’ The Dream — I made enough that week to pay rent for three months (my rent is really low, not a huge brag). What a…

Okay! I admit it.  I'm a nonfiction writer.  I've had 5 nonfiction books published but within all of them are stories.  Now story has taken hold of me and I am on a mystical journey towards fiction.  I am workshopping my new (in development) novel and am working with an editor on getting a chapter by chapter analysis. I see no reason that a nonfiction writer cannot write compelling fiction.

My Goddess, I never realized the challenges of fiction writing or creating a novel.  I have…

Every week literary agents receive hundreds of query letters from aspiring writers who are hoping to interest the agent in their project. Why then, would agents take time from their busy schedules to go to a writers conference and meet yet more writers in person?

As co-founder of the online writers community Backspace, I’ve been organizing the Backspace Writers Conferences held twice-annually in New York City for…

Q: How do you know whether you're truly a writer?

A: If the impulse to write is so strong that you think you might perish if something were to ever come between you and the page, then chances are good that you're a writer.

Q: How do you know whether you're a careful reader?

A: If you read others' musings and therein find passages whose beauty, rhythm, and humor call out to you so strongly that you find at…

Hey Everyone,

I wanted to give you all some advanced notice about an upcoming interview with the one and only Karen Mahoney!

For those who don’t know her, she is the author of The Iron Witch trilogy and The Moth series, as well as other anthologies.

I am lucky enough to be able to do an interview with her for her upcoming release of The Stone Demon, the last in The Iron…

In celebration of our national Irish holiday, I am giving away three original short stories at my website. 

These original stories are free until 12:00 midnight on March 17th. 

These contemporary tales all center around the topic of infidelity, Irish style.

The first story, "Wednesdays," is posted there now.

To follow: "La Belle Femme" and  

(just in time for…

When I was a kid, I went to canoe camp every summer. I paddled the boreal forests of northern Minnesota and Canada with a group of six girls, portaging 85-pound wood canvas canoes across narrow, rocky trails and learning that I was generally capable of more than I thought.

But I learned something else, too. One night, lying in the tent and writing in my journal, I…

He entered behind me shutting the door once he was in and I heard the locks engage.

My breathing stopped. What was I thinking? Locked in a car not only with a strange man in the backseat, but his rather large driver as well. He could take me anywhere. The two of them could easily overpower me.

My heart thumped in my chest and I tried not to look as frightened as I was feeling. I swallowed down the lump in my throat and took a deep breath. No one knew where I was, who I was…

Once, my greatest fear was living my entire life without ever seeing my books published. After becoming fortunate enough to call myself a published author two years ago, my new greatest fear was that no one would read my books. And I suspect I’m not the only one to feel overwhelmed by the enormity of releasing a book into the wild, so to speak. It’s a complicated and nerve-wracking process muddled by ever-changing technology and a bevy of competition.

Let’s face it, there are…

Last fall, I completed a 50,000-word young adult novel called Uptown Summer. I revised the manuscript to the best of my ability, rewrote, plucked and pruned extraneous passages, and then revised once again. After three drafts, I felt as if there was nothing more I could do. I contacted a few interested parties at this point and began sending out the manuscript for feedback. Weeks passed, and then months, and still I hadn't heard anything. Finally, I asked my readers the…

I have just had 5 weeks off work.  I have hung out with my son, gone to the beach, read books and cleaned my house from top to bottom (it's on the market). The truth is I have simply bludged (good Aussie slang for doing nothing) for 5 weeks.  Now, as I at my computer in a quiet house, the summer holiday now a mere memory, I have so much to write.  I get annoyed at myself because everyone seems to have grasped this whole e-book thing and run with it and I am so left behind.  But when I…

“Every sun casts a shadow, and genius’s shadow is Resistance. As powerful as is our soul’s call to realization, so potent are the forces of Resistance arrayed against it.” ~ Steven Pressfield

I have a confession…

Several agents are interested in my current work-in-progress, a somewhat dark fantasy romance. You’d think I would have had the requested synopsis and three chapters zipping along the…

In May 2011, I left my job and home in Madison, Wisconsin to move to San Francisco to be a full-time writer. I didn’t know what that meant, and I had no idea how to make it happen. Nonetheless, I have been making my living writing for a year and a half now, without falling back on a day job.

For about a year now, I’ve been trying to come up with the right…

I looked to my left and to my right thinking he couldn't possibly have been talking to me.  A man that looked like that, well, they don't usually talk to women who, well, looked like I did.

"Where were you headed?  I honestly don't mind the detour.  I'm in no hurry, in fact, I really hate going to these stupid parties.  I'm no good at mingling," he said with a smile noticing my hesitation.

I cleared my throat and tried to gain my composure.  This was not like me to even be…

I used to watch the Alice in Wonderland cartoon a lot as a child.  The story was equal parts confusing as hell and so gloriously insane that it became amazing.  Some days I felt a great sense of relief and solidarity after watching Alice blunder through Wonderland, though I couldn’t say why.  Other times I would stare at…