I did it. I made the decision and I’m not turning back. I signed up and I will hold myself accountable. This year, I will participate in National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo). It’s exciting to think about writing an entire draft of a novel in one month. I’ve never done that before. Usually, I labor over a story for […]
Originally Published October 2017 Have you ever read a book and thought, “It was good, but I wish this part had been different”? (This, of course, is not the same as, “How could the author do that?!” as you’re throwing the book across the room.) Maybe the two main characters fall in love with each other, but you feel that […]
Originally Published February 2018 When I first started writing novels, I loved the rough draft process. It was a chance to exercise creativity and imagine new people and places, committing my dreams to paper. I hated the revision process. In fact, I believed that real writers never needed to revise. If I was a real writer, the story would flow […]
As a teenager, I wasn’t really interested in fantasy stories. I read two or three Anne McCaffrey books in junior high because one was required for my English class, but I soon became bored with them. I also remember reading and enjoying The Hobbit, but not enough to read The Lord of the Rings. When my oldest sister, Jessika, would […]
“Besides a couple of scenes of sensuality, this is a great book.” “There’s some profanity, but this is a good book overall.” I hear comments like this all the time. Many of my friends have the same values I have and warn me when a book’s content might be objectionable. Even in the Young Adult genre I’m not safe from […]
I used to dream about being famous. My writing was going to make that happen. I believed that the publishers would love my book; the world would love my book; it would be made into a movie; I would buy a castle in England…. That didn’t happen. Thirteen-year-old Vibeke grew up. Every rejection from an agent or publisher prompted another […]
John ran as hard as he could, pushing himself more than he ever had before. Still, his destination didn’t appear to be any closer. He tried to take a few seconds to catch his breath, but the sound of horses behind him compelled him to keep moving forward. The horses— “Mom! Mom! Look at my robot! I built it!” “Wow, […]
As a gas giant with no known solid surface, it would be impossible to stand on Jupiter and watch a moonrise. But that is only a footnote to this story. I started thinking about writing a blog eight or nine years ago. At the time, I was working as a phone book editor and a co-worker suggested that it would […]
“I know I was writing stories when I was five. I don’t know what I did before that. Just loafed I suppose.” – P.G. Wodehouse My first book was a children’s book, inspired by the birth of my brother when I was in Kindergarten. I couldn’t spell yet, so I dictated the story to my mom and drew the illustrations […]