Faced with conflicting feedback, what's a writer to do? My answer is simple but not easy: Trust your instincts and be willing to revise your work. My former agent Laurie Harper consults with authors to help them shape their books and their careers. She recently asked...
http://lameredith.com/2014/09/swimming-with-maya-interview-with-author-eleanor-vincent/ Lizbeth Meredith recently interviewed me for her blog, LAMeredith, and here is the result - some insights about writing, publication, promotion, and how to detach enough to write a...
I love games and words equally, so – voila! – blog tag with two wonderful writers. Thanks to my fellow Dream of Things author David Berner, whose new memoir recently won the Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year award, for "tagging" me. Our publisher, Mike...
Writing is often lonely work. When it goes well, it is deeply satisfying. When it doesn't, it is beyond frustrating. Word by word, sentence by sentence, we writers labor to share a created reality with our readers. When readers respond with gratitude, support, and...
I love memoirs that push the edge of the genre, using fictional techniques to tell a riveting true story. Authors like Alice Sebold (Lucky), Jenette Wells (The Glass Castle), Cheryl Strayed (Wild), and Ann Patchett (Truth and Beauty) spring readily to mind. But...
When words wash over you like waves at the beach, make you laugh out loud, or gasp in astonishment, or choke back tears, you know you are hearing a good poem. That's the beauty of poetry - it's music to your ears and to your heart. I write poems in order to hear the...
The Story Circle Network Conference in Austin, Texas was an amazing gathering of women eager to help one another write their stories. From April 11 - 13 we gathered to learn from each other. It was a rich three days of conversations, workshops, and celebrations...
Ken Budd recently published a post in The New York Times opinionator blog entitled "When Writers Expose the Dead" about writing a memoir closely describing his deceased father. He raises interesting questions for memoirists writing about people who have "turned in...
Nichole Smith at Chaos in the Country asked me to write a guest post for her blog from the perspective of the family of an organ donor. Nichole understands donation on a very personal level: her niece received a donated heart. We are both grateful for the miracle of...
I'm delighted to be a guest on Choices today, the blog of a wonderful writer and dear friend, Madeline Sharples. Madeline challenged me to write a guest post giving readers the low down on writing memoir. Whenever someone says she is writing a memoir I smile and...