Despite the disruption of the coronavirus, life struggles on. It’s been a few months since I announced I would begin my search for an agent to represent my memoir. I have nothing good to report and have had 5 rejections. I expect many more. I’m not discouraged. As I learne
Starting this month these WriteAway blogs will appear on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. These almost 10 years of daily blogging have been a great joy for me but it’s time to slow down. My thanks to all the readers of this page. Many of you have been with me a long, long time.
I’m sending this Valentine message of hearts and flowers to my readers. Some of us have been together for what is approaching 10 years. That’s a lot of companionship and I’m grateful for it and also embrace the newly arrived. My thanks to you all.
For a writer, today, publishing is like walking through a landscape that keeps changing. Amazon’s war with the big publishing houses is an important reason. For a while, there seemed to be a truce between the two, but it appears Amazon has used the time to up its game. Recently,
Rejection is an experience common to most of us. Sometimes the rebuff is personal. Sometimes it isn’t. Either way, we must get past our hurt feelings or be lost in a bog. Here’s an example of how fear of rejection can make a situation worse. For the past several months I’ve be
As I walked down a hall at the retirement center the other day, a man tapped me on the shoulder. Turning around, I saw his expression was friendly though it bore the look of surprise. “Say, I finished your book, Gothic Spring last night. Ya know? It was pretty good.” That said,
Because it’s electronic, a reader would think an eBook is available on demand. Surprisingly, however, readers who obtain their eBooks from libraries can face a lineup. The reason is simple. Libraries pay between $40 to $60 per title for a license to provide those works for a period
A reader directed me to an article in the October issue of The Atlantic, John Seabrook’s comments on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and creative writing. Could machines learn to write better than professionals, it asked. I’ll probably go on foraging for ideas from this piece for a w
One of my fellow authors is scratching her head because she’s discovered her books are being sold on foreign websites. Her discovery raises a couple of questions. How did her novels wander so far from the home? Does one get bragging rights for making the bestseller list in Tra
At 81, I now have a pair of hearing aids, and believe me, I’d prefer not to. If I didn’t already know life moves at a frenetic pace, I would now, judging from the noise around me. I’ve worn these expensive devices for three weeks and I’m struggling to make the adju