By the time you read this, I will already be well into my writing retreat. But before I left, I made a list of some of my goals: • Figure out and finish revisions to Part III of my novel. • Address other revisions/edits/structural changes in the novel. • Practice reading aloud from Living Arrangements [...]

I have a confession to make. I’m getting a little burnt out taking pictures of my cats with publications. It might be because I’m always rushed and don’t take the time to wait for the perfect photo opportunity. Everyone knows you can’t dictate a cat’s schedule. Even so, I tend to do something stupid like [...]

This weekend, while plugging away on novel edits, all these ideas and plans for my next novel interrupted my work. I’ve been walking around with the general premise of this new novel for a while now, but this was the first time I actually started writing down notes. I could barely keep up with all [...]

I have this embarrassing habit of writing notes to myself in my writing notebooks or even in my Word documents. The result is a bunch of random, mini journal entries mixed in with my other writing/research. And since they’re scattered everywhere with the care of a crazy person, I always run the risk of leaving [...]

My writing “retreat” got off to a slow start this weekend for all sorts of mundane reasons I won’t go into right now. But then something wonderful happened: On Sunday morning, my wireless internet died an abrupt (if temporary) death. It was fantastic. The internet itself wasn’t what had been holding me back – even [...]

Last week was kind of rough. I was still recovering from my combination Houston-Portland trip, I had a busy workweek with a tight production deadline, I was struggling with my novel revisions and, to top it off, I was on the verge of getting sick. By mid-week, I had about had it. I was at [...]

You have no idea how happy I am that March is here. I had a bunch of deadlines to meet by the end of February and I still can’t believe I actually finished everything on time. To celebrate, I’m taking a break from writing/revising this week. Or at least I thought I was — now [...]

An anonymous writer asked Betsy Lerner if she should keep plugging away at her YA novel, which she describes as a “painful” process, or instead ride the wave of success she’s had selling bits of her memoir to various publications. In other words, should she abandon her novel to give in to her current writing [...]

Unlike every other writer in the world (it feels like that, at least), I am not in DC right now for AWP. I would be lying if I said I didn’t regret this a little. I’d like to be able to meet some editors and writers face-to-face for the first time and catch up with [...]

My writing schedule has been off for the last few weeks, and it looks like it’s going to stay that way for at least one more week. For the most part, I’m okay with that. We all need to take a break to eat high-calorie foods and visit with friends and relatives, right? Even before [...]