Swearing in Novels: My Take
I've been following some interesting discussions about the use of profanity in novels. It started on Kindle Boards in this thread titled "Gutter-mouth." Then I continued the conversation over on my Facebook page, since I was curious as to what…
Titles that Titillate (or something like that)
Some of you may know that I'm a freelance copywriter (Copy Bitch) by day. My so-called specialties include writing taglines, punchy headlines, and pithy ad copy. I'm fast. Churning out pith is easy for me. Unless, of course, it involves titling…
But It Really Happened That Way!
I imagine many writers out there have heard a fellow writer say, "But it really happened that way!" when questioned by beta readers or critique partners about a particular event in their story. (I might even be guilty.)
This isn't an original…
Cover Art for eBooks
Here's the cover art for my novel.
One of the pros of self-publishing is you have control over the cover art process. One of the cons of self-publishing is you have control over the covert art process. 🙂
It's mostly a pro, I think. I use…
Letting Go
I'm getting ready to email my novel to the folks at eBook Architects. They're the ones who convert my Word doc file into Mobi (Kindle) and ePub (everything else). Then it will be time for me to sell the thing.
We've had a long journey, this…
Happy National Grammar Day
How does one properly celebrate National Grammar Day? Getting all crazy with prepositions at the end of sentences? Going on a split infinitive spree? Running up to random people on the street and exclaiming: "Help! Have you seen my gerund?"
I'll…
People Will Hate You. People Will Love You.
You can't please everyone, and you shouldn't try. Logically, I imagine we all know this is true, but it's a hard thing for our emotional selves to deal with, isn't it? Especially when it comes to people reviewing our art.
But the fact is, people…
Why Create Art?
I saw My Name is Asher Lev at The Lyric Stage Company in Boston this past weekend. It's adapted from the novel by Chaim Potok. It tells the story of Asher Lev, an observant Hasidic Jew who is caught between being true to his art and true to…
My Latest Short Story is Available
I'm excited to announce my latest short story, "Crush," is now available for download on Kindles and Nooks (you'll need the Nook app or Kindle app for your iPad since the iBookstore is backlogged -- hope it goes live on there soon). And yes,…
Knee-Deep in Editing
I'm self-publishing my debut novel in May. This is a book I've worked on for nine years. No, wait -- 10 years (since 2001). It's gone through six top-to-bottom rewrites. It's been laid to rest once, only to be resurrected a year later when,…