RWA National: Social Media 360 with Cindy Ratzlaff

Posted by on Jul 25, 2014 in dish | 0 comments When Cindy Ratzlaff was in kindergarten, she brought home a report card that said she chatted too much with neighbors and daydreamed in class. Her father read over the remarks and, thankfully for us, said, “Don’t let anyone tell you that’s a bad thing.” Cindy has been able to parlay those qualities into a successful career in PR and marketing. She’s been the brains...
read more

RWA National: Doing It All Over Again: Writing Novels in a Series

Posted by on Jul 19, 2013 in dish | 0 comments New York Times bestselling authors Eloisa James and Sarah MacLean and their editor, Carrie Ferron of Avon, delivered a solid hour of  information for those of us planning a series of novels. Although the thought of planning a series, like James’s Desperate Duchesses, and MacLean’s Scoundrels, seems daunting, it becomes less so when you consider the following: CONNECTIONS: What is it...
read more

RWA National: New Adult: Young Adult Books “Grow Up”

Posted by on Jul 18, 2013 in dish | 0 comments Subtitled “Everything You Want to Know About the Hottest Genre in Publishing,” writers Jennifer L. Armentrout, Cora Carmack, and Molly McAdams, agents Kevan Lyon of Marsal Lyon Literary Agency and Suzie Townsend of New Leaf Literary, and Avon editor Tessa Woodward discussed the emergence of the New Adult subgenre. Here are some highlights from their talk: New Adult focuses on the...
read more

Dear Manuscript: It’s Not You, It’s Me

Posted by on Feb 6, 2013 in dish | 0 comments This was a painful week, one that had been brewing for longer than I’ve been willing to admit. This week, I broke up with the baseball book. I love so many elements about this story: a heroine finding herself after a painful divorce, a couple of excellent sidekicks, a hunky guy who restores houses, and baseball (of course). It was a NaNoWriMo book that I enjoyed drafting. The revising? Not...
read more

Jane Austen, Fanny, Emma, Elizabeth Bennet, and Me

Posted by on Jan 28, 2013 in dish | 0 comments Today marks the 200th anniversary of the publication of Pride and Prejudice. Originally titled First Impressions, it was the first manuscript Jane Austen wrote, but not the first to be published; the first edition title page reads “by the author of Sense and Sensibility.” When I was in college, my fabulous advisor, the inimitable Dr. Jim Skinner, was the departmental expert in all...
read more