It Came from the Slushpile
There was an article recently (in the Guardian/UK I think though I might just be pulling that out of my ear) which I can no longer find. Such is the impermanence and permanence of the internet. It’s there forever but […]
Treggiari
Jo’s Big Big News (at least I think so!)
This is…. the Scholastic Building in New York City. Note how imposing, how stately, how big. Doesn’t it appear to be stuffed full of books? Of editors and writers? Ooh. Ahhhhhh. Ok, now here is a sentence from Publisher’s Lunch […]
Agents: love ’em and love ’em
There are probably more blogs and comments dedicated to the subject of agents than there are to any other discussion topic fundamental to publishing and writer, but I thought some people might be interested in hearing about my own journey. […]
The Remove
I have recently finished my WIP and emerged rumpled and sweaty with a book I call, LUCKY. Usually when I write I have the ending at least all figured out. This time the opposite was true. I knew exactly where […]
Landscaping
I used to be a landscaper. You might be thinking rose trellises, wild flower meadows, deciding just where the boxwood hedges would go. Marching around the acreage with a brimmed hat and a notebook, making squiggles and hatch marks to […]
Pick a Thread
I’m working on something new (possible title- FIERCE).I’m trying to get my thoughts in order. I’d already written about 3/4 of the book but after putting it aside for a year or so while I was working on something else, […]
The Cuts
Back when I started my current WIP it was a entirely different sort of beast. Very dark, very edgy, very depressing. It was sort of like a slow torturous climb towards a depressing conclusion and then a fast, unrelenting tumble […]
Genre-hopping
My first published book was a middle grade fantasy. It’s called “The Curious Misadventures of Feltus Ovalton” and you can look it up if you want. It looks like this: I was contracted to do a series of at least […]
Are Women Writers dominating YA and Middle Grade?
No less a luminary than Roald Dahl said that writing for children was the hardest sort of writing there was. He was also of the opinion that women made better childrens lit authors. I dont remember his reasoning. It was […]
Do You “Slang” Slang? Drop Verbal ‘Bombs’?
I write YA, but that doesnt mean I try to replicate how teenagers talk.Somehow over the last twenty years or so, I have stopped being a teenager myself and become an old person. It is an eternal mystery to me.And […]