UPDATE #2: Our Ning group has moved to Facebook. Request to join! UPDATE: I’ve created a Ning group, Travel Memoir Writers, where we can continue this conversation, share ideas and learn from one another. If you’re writing a travel memoir, please join us! Forgoing today’s Writers’ Roundup for something more fun: a blog party! We’ve […]
I don’t usually post word counts, but several friends have asked recently how long my book will be. I just finished revising (and cutting) Parts I and II, and together they’re nearly 70,000 words. That’s 224 manuscript pages, double-spaced in Microsoft Word, Times New Roman font. Ideally, I’d like the manuscript to come in at […]
Just in time for the New Year, I’ve presented five of my friends with a gift: the first section of my book. Of course, they’re really the ones giving me the gift. These generous people have offered to read my travel memoir, front-to-back, and offer suggestions. A handful of writerly friends have read pieces of […]
Who wants to be happy? Or happier? Everyone. That’s why I’m expecting the book The Happiness Project, released last week, to be a bestseller. (You can buy it here.) Author Gretchen Rubin is with us today to talk about the book, her wildly successful blog — also called The Happiness Project — and advice for […]
I promised I wouldn’t blog this week. But how can I ignore the return of The Babysitters Club series?! (New York Times, thank you for reporting news that matters.) I grew up reading these books. I was that geeky, speed-reading tween who carried a book everywhere just in case I had time to get in […]
… is to finish revising! Between now and the New Year, I’ve got a lot going on. Not only will I be spending time with family and friends, next week also is the last week before my self-imposed revision deadline. That’s right: by January 1, I’m hoping to finish revising my book. So rather than […]
I just finished reading Stephen King’s On Writing: A memoir of the craft. Since I started my travel memoir nearly a year ago, I’ve read quite a few books on writing. So far this is my favorite. Why? Because King offers practical advice. Instead of emphasizing that writing is different for every writer, he tells […]
Now that I’m revising my travel memoir, I spend a lot of time looking at scenes and paragraphs that make me uncomfortable and asking myself: should I really include this? That’s because in my first draft, I included everything. I included details that were embarrassing, that I wouldn’t even want my mother to read. I […]
Since launching this blog in April, I’ve learned a lot. I’ve come so far, in fact, that it’s almost embarrassing to read some of my initial posts, when I was confused about newbie details like when to query literary agents (when my memoir is done) and what’s an appropriate word count for my book (90,000 […]
Slim pickings in my Google Reader this week. Here are my faves: Does Social Networking Kill the Author Mystique? Does it sell books? Questions raised by thriller author Jason Pinter. Please stand to the right (if you’re a loser), from adventurer Alastair Humphreys. “Standing on the right (of the escalator) is a metaphor for complacency,” […]